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Flagler, Florida and Beyond
FlaglerLive | August 8, 2018
The grants were part of the annual county tourism bureau’s funding round and are designed to enhance tourism and the visitor count in the county.
FlaglerLive | May 29, 2018
County Administrator Craig Coffey and tourism officials put commissioners’ questions about the expense of a website to rest with 75 minutes of details and only a few straw men.
FlaglerLive | May 16, 2017
A good showing in December aside, when year-over-year tourism tax receipts jumped 18 percent, Flagler County has done less well, and not necessarily because of Hurricane Matthew.
FlaglerLive | March 14, 2017
A divided House Agriculture and Property Rights Subcommittee was not swayed by a presentation from Flagler County Attorney Al Hadeed as it voted to scrap county authority to regulate short-term, vacation rentals. The bill has several additional hurdles to clear.
FlaglerLive | March 6, 2017
County Commissioner Donald O’Brien today was willing to raise the county’s tourism tax to 5 percent, but to further increase revenue for beach restoration, and, for a year, lower revenue for promotions.
FlaglerLive | January 23, 2017
Flagler County commissioners agreed today to deplete a $1.5 million fund for beach management as part of a match to draw down state dollars, but none of the money would benefit Flagler Beach, angering officials there.
FlaglerLive | October 21, 2016
After a vote failed to take-over the failing museum entirely, Flagler County commissioners agreed to a generous 90-day bailout, pending a more detailed agreement that would enable the county to absorb the 460-acre property yet leave the museum board at least nominally in place.
FlaglerLive | May 18, 2016
The questioning was another example of of the TDC’s more inquisitorial attitude toward local projects as opposed to a less rigorous or accountable approach when the applicant is an out-of-town organization, including for-profits.
FlaglerLive | March 21, 2016
County government’s tourism arm, which manages $1.6 million in tax dollars, is diminishing emphasis on community events to push sports and conferences which draw people without necessarily promoting the county.
FlaglerLive | October 22, 2015
While the Spartan race appears set at a private ranch in Flagler next March, again, serious questions of transparency and patronage are undermining tiourism chief Matt Dunn’s latest approach.
FlaglerLive | August 22, 2015
Flagler County’s justifications for holding a Spartan extreme-sport race at Princess Place Preserve fails the smell test on all counts and raise questions about how tourism chief Matt Dunn and County Administrator Craig Coffey got the deal so far to start with.
FlaglerLive | August 17, 2015
The tourism office’s four employees have been under contract through the Flagler chamber of commerce. By next fall, they’ll be county employees, but their budget will still be underwritten by the 4 percent surtax on short-term rentals.
FlaglerLive | March 6, 2015
Steven Milo, head of Vacation Rental Pros, sued the Flagler County Commission, an eight-count action that alleges property, privacy and equal protection rights violations.
FlaglerLive | January 19, 2015
Chris Goodfellow, a resident of the Hammock, argues that Salamander Hotels’ proposed 198-room re-development requires a precedent-setting change the county commission should avoid absent clearer consensus from the Hammock community.
FlaglerLive | July 8, 2014
Bull Creek Restaurant on the shores of Dead Lake and in the heart of Bull Creek Camp Ground in western Flagler was dedicated Tuesday morning as the owners of Woody’s BBQ in Palm Coast take on the breakfast, lunch and dinner establishment to the delight of residents at the west end of the county.
FlaglerLive | May 1, 2014
The Flagler County Commission has been leading the fight to overturn a 2011 state law prohibiting the regulation of short-term rentals. Thursday morning, the Florida Senate voted 37-2 to give back some home-rule authority to local governments. The House approved the measure 90-27 on Wednesday, sealing a major victory for Flagler County.
FlaglerLive | October 24, 2013
The expedited Attorney General’s opinion cited Flagler County’s own absence of regulation of vacation rentals before 2011 as one reason the county’s hands are tied in controlling what has become a center of conflict for permanent residents of the Hammock. Since 2011, a state law prevents local governments from imposing new regulations.
FlaglerLive | October 4, 2013
The 10-second spot will run once an hour, 18 times a day, through Jan. 2, on a billboard on 42nd Street, four and a half blocks south of Times Square, and is paid for half by the county’s tourism bed tax and half by the general fund, through the economic development department.
FlaglerLive | October 2, 2013
Starting Tuesday, the National Park Service closed all 401 national parks, including Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments in St. Augustine, affecting the local tourism economy. Potential foreign visitors’ visas are facing processing delays.
FlaglerLive | August 28, 2013
County Commissioner George Hanns and Administrator Craig Coffey had talked of absorbing the tourism office–currently a branch of the chamber of commerce–into county government. It won’t happen. Rather, Tourism Director Georgia Turner is talking of having a stand-alone tourism office in a few years.
FlaglerLive | February 1, 2013
Flagler Beach government could make up to $3 million over 5 years by turning its streets into revenue-generating parking slots, but the city manager’s proposal faces stiff-but not unanimous–opposition from local residents and businesses, who fear jeopardizing the city’s charms and its appeal to tourists.
FlaglerLive | January 30, 2013
The changes, affecting $100,000 in bed-tax dollars county government, through the tourism council, awards organizations that put on special events, would dispense with the requirement that organizations spend the money advertising their event, and would allow them to spend it on incidental expenses that may be more difficult to track.
FlaglerLive | September 10, 2012
Lucas Weekley, a budding engineer from Ocala, builds and flies remote-controlled aircraft that shoot high-definition video, which he edits and launches on YouTube through his BuyBee TV. Flagler Beach and Hammock Dunes were the lucky subjects of his last production.
FlaglerLive | July 24, 2012
Economic woes in Europe will trickle across the Atlantic over the next few years as potential international guests stay home or see their native currency buy less once they arrive, a panel of economists estimates.
FlaglerLive | March 21, 2012
Captain’s BBQ at Bings Landing will operate the concession shop and kayak,canoe and bike rentals for $500 a month’s rent in Flagler County’s latest attempt to give life to a handsome but commercially problematic location.
FlaglerLive | October 20, 2011
Peggy Heiser’s resignation, attributed to family priorities, will have political and economic ramifications as the Chamber of Commerce’s Doug Baxter–not the tourism council or the county commission–chooses a successor.
FlaglerLive | August 21, 2011
The publicly funded tourism council approved a 7.7 percent raise for the Flagler Chamber of Commerce’s VP for tourism and the council’s administrative head, and 6 percent raises for two staff members. The Flagler County Commission must give final approval.
FlaglerLive | June 8, 2011
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission asked its staff to draw up a new compromise favoring Flagler County’s position on manatee speed zones on the Intracoastal, a significant defeat for manatee advocates.
FlaglerLive | June 1, 2011
The case is of interest to Flagler, whose Tourist Development Council has been aggressively pursuing avenues, including a lawsuit of its own, to compel online companies to pay their fair share of sales and bed taxes.
FlaglerLive | May 23, 2011
Palm Coast is looking to expand the Indian Trails Sports Complex to attract more lacrosse and soccer tournaments to the area, and with them more visitors.
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