Headed by Helga van Eckert since 2012, Flagler County’s $500,000-a-year economic development department had been more successful with PR and taking credit for others’ work than producing much of its own.
helga van eckert
Flagler County’s Economic Development Farce Is Wasting Millions of Taxpayer Dollars to Beat Its Own Drum
Since Flagler County government created the $450,000-a-year economic development department, the county has added 10,000 jobs, but only a few dozen as a result of the department’s involvement.
Behind Collapse of Furniture Company Deal With Flagler Government, Disarray, Misrepresentations and Premature Boasts
The collapse of a deal between a furniture-assembling company and Flagler County government is the latest setback for an economic development department with a checkered eight-year history and signal failures.
County Agrees To $680,000 Tax Rebate Over 10 Years For an Unnamed Furniture Company
The unanimous vote capped a brief presentation followed by a nearly hour-long stream of public support and commissioners’ applause, though most elements of the package remain hidden, and, enthusiasm aside, many of the statements were speculative, exaggerated or inaccurate.
A New Hospital For Flagler? Credibility Gap Yawns Between Commissioner Joe Mullins’s Pledges and County Administration’s Caution
The stories told by Mullins’s hyper-optimism and the county administration’s more cautious and deliberate approach illustrate a recurring gulf between the politician’s wishes and promises and what the government administration is in fact delivering (or not).
County Prepares to Give One Company $680,000 Subsidy Over 10 Years, Dwarfing All Previous Incentive Packages Combined
A furniture distribution company would build the largest structure in Flagler, a 250,000 square foot building, off U.S. 1 and provide 50 jobs in exchange for the $680,000 in direct subsidies over the next 10 years, an amount extrapolated from a largely speculative guess of how much the company would be taxed.
Disaster-Response Company Gets $40,000 County Subsidy and Moves to Flagler Airport
Kimble’s Aviation Logistical Services pledged to create 40 jobs over the next seven years, basing its disaster-recovery operation at the Flagler County Airport.
Stonework Company From Former Soviet Republic Opening 30-Job Distribution Hub in Palm Coast
Kamara Stone USA is based in Georgia, the nation in Southwest Asia, and plans to create 30 jobs over the next four years, distributing granite, marble and mosaics from its Hargrove Grade location.
Flagler Awards $90,000 Subsidy to Company, Secret For Now, to Construct “Spec” Building
Though County Commissioners approved the $90,000, the government is not disclosing the name of the company benefiting from it, saying it doesn’t want to undermine the company’s real estate transaction.
Never Gone, Barbara Revels Reemerges in Appointment to Economic Advisory Board She Launched
The County Commission appointed Ex-County Commissioner Barbara Revels to the Economic Opportunity Advisory Board on a 4-1 vote, with her opponent, Dave Sullivan, casting a vote for Jason DeLorenzo.
Short-Listed For High-Tech Finance Company’s 250 Jobs, Flagler Seeks $500,000 in Incentives
Flagler County government is making its most expensive pitch to attract 250 jobs, a high-tech finance company based in the Northeast and looking to expand either in Florida or Georgia.
Company Would Get $90,000 in County Subsidies to Build New Palm Coast Plant in Novel Incentive Approach
Manufacturer Gioia Sales employs 42 on Palm Coast’s Hargrove Grade and would build a larger facility on Commerce Boulevard, with 10 years of subsidies from Flagler County.
Flagler’s Aveo Pandering: The Artful Way To Do a Groundbreaking, and the Bogus Way
It was rank manipulation when Aveo Engineering, county government and Rick Scott pretended to break ground on a factory at the Flagler County airport three years ago. It was never built.
Unemployment Stays Flat in Flagler, at 5.9%, and in Florida, at 5.1%, as Workforce Stalls
All numbers dipped a little in Flagler County’s economic graphs in November in what amounts to a tepid unemployment report locally and in Florida. But most numbers are still heading in the right direction.
From Brownfield to Community Vegetable Garden, a Coalition Seeds Fresher Health
A $34,000 brownfields grant and the collaboration of numerous schools, agencies and businesses transformed an old propane farm in South Bunnell into a community vegetable garden that will help feed hundreds.
Nutrition Supplement Firm Will Expand Into Ex-Palm Coast Data Building, With 50 Jobs
Designs for Health, a nutritional supplement and vitamins company, will get a $25,000 county subsidy to expand from Hargrove Grade to Commerce Boulevard in exchange for 50 jobs and a $3 million investment in the old Palm Coast Data building complex.
We Don’t Oppose Sea Ray. We Oppose Pollutants and Debasing Flagler Beach’s Quality of Life.
Two Flagler Beach residents lay out the case against Sea Ray’s proposed land use change to accommodate a parking lot, a change opponents say paves the way for more pollution without compelling the company to take stronger toxic-emission control measures.
“Halleluiah Jesus”: From “Project Hot Dog” to Foreign Investors, Flagler Sees Commercial Real Estate Turn-Around
Ukrainian entrepreneurs, Chinese investors and local businesses looking to expand are resulting in robust new activity on Flagler’s long-dormant commercial real estate sector, the county’s economic development council learned this morning.
County Administrator Craig Coffey Seeking 10% Raise, to $161,000, Amid Other Personnel Costs
The county administrator’s salary would increase from $146,383 and would add an automatic 3 percent merit pay increase a year absent an affirmative decision by the county commission.
Economic Development Director Helga van Eckert Is CareerSource’s Excellence Award Recipient
Flagler County’s Department of Economic Development Executive Director Helga van Eckert was awarded the “Partners in Workforce Excellence Award” by CareerSource Flagler Volusia at the Annual Board of Directors meeting on Nov. 21.
Flagship Schools: How Flagler District Is Changing the Way Students Learn, and Prepare for Careers
The goal is to begin the college and career readiness process much earlier and more comprehensively. The program, incorporated into the normal daily curriculum, is based STEM initiatives, with an eye toward preparing students for employment in area industries.
Flagler Economic Development Department’s Job Fair Draws 400 Applicants and 36 Employers
Job seekers filled the parking lot and stood in a line that spilled out into the hallway of the Flagler County Emergency Operations Center Thursday as company representatives were busy at tables speaking with potential employees and accepting resumes.
Unemployment Spike to 9.3% in Flagler Masks Larger Labor Force, More Job Creation and Flurry of Development Ahead
Flagler County’s January unemployment is up sharply from from 8.8 percent in December. but in a brighter sign, the county’s labor force also added some 400 people, there was a net gain of some 200 jobs, and numerous commercial, residential and government construction projects suggest that the county’s economy is brightening.
Do You TALKiT? Palm Coast Venture Looks to Revolutionize Social Media With Voice App
TALKiT, a new app created by Palm Coast’s Curtis Ceballos and that will launch on Memorial Day, aims to give voice to texting and to revolutionize the social media landscape with an innovation that has no rivals as yet. The venture is catching the attention of Flagler County’s economic development department.
Unearned Audacity: On Economic Development, Flagler Tells Voters to Drop Dead
State law requires Flagler County to ask voters permission in a referendum, every 10 years, to give new companies tax subsidies. The Flagler County Commission wants to trash that law and let a supermajority of four commissioners make the decision for voters instead. It’s the latest example of a commission more enamored of its power than in tune with voters.
Taking Competition Seriously, FPC Focuses Its Own Promotional Video on Economic Impact
An eight-minute promotional and marketing video about Flagler Palm Coast High School, produced by students, reflects the intense competition even public schools now face to stay relevant, and is catching the eye of economic development officials, who see it as a means of broadening the county’s story and potential to prospective residents and businesses.
Flagler County Buys 276 Minutes on Electronic Billboard Near Times Square, for $15,000
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.
Aveo Engineering Set to Sign 40-Year Lease for Flagler County Airport Sites
Aveo Engineering, which plans to hire some 300 people by 2016, will pay $1,089 a month per acre, and intends to build two structures on up to a dozen acres at the south end of the airport, including a design and manufacturing plant.
Again in Flagler, Gov. Scott Headlines Aveo Co.’s 300-Jobs Groundbreaking at Airport
If the 300 promised jobs are produced, landing Aveo Engineering in Flagler County will prove to be the largest single gain of private-employer jobs in memory, and an unqualified success for the county administration’s new economic development department under Helga van Eckert. But the company is getting generous incentives beyond the $150,000 in cash for jobs retained.
Nielsen’s Aveo Engineering Taxies to Take Off at Flagler Airport in County’s Latest Jobs Coup
It’s been billed as a secret, jobs-producing company the county administration’s economic development team will unveil at the Flagler County Airport Tuesday morning, but there’s little secret about it: Aveo Engineering, a maker of LED light products in the aeronautic industry, is bringing some 300 jobs to the airport.
Coastal Cloud, a Next-Generation Computing Management Firm, Unveils Plan for 100 Jobs
Coastal Cloud is a newly-formed subsidiary of Graphene LLC, a computing consultancy, that will provide cloud-based data management services while hiring locally some 100 jobs over three years, at an average wage of $46,500, the company announced to the county’s economic development council today.
Greg Rawls, Long-Time Face of Economic Development in Flagler, Opts For a New Tribe
Greg Rawls had been Enterprise Flagler’s executive director since 2007 before Palm Coast and Flagler County killed that economic development partnership, and Flagler formed its own, where Rawls worked as a manager. He’ll be working for Creek Indian Enterprises in Alabama.
For $50,000, Flagler County Hires Marketing Firm to Buff Up Economic Development
The Flagler County Commission this evening approved a $50,000 contract with Orlando-based Solodev, a marketing and web-design firm that pledges to launch the county’s revamped economic development website by January 2013.
Flagler Chamber and County’s Jobs Council Hosting $25-a-Plate “Unity” Lunch Aug. 17
Dale Brill, president of the Florida Chamber Foundation, is the guest speaker for what the local chamber and the county are calling a “unity in the community” lunch at Palm Coast’s Hilton Garden Inn.
404 Error: Flagler Jobs Council Tangles Over Its Web Address, then Delegates
It’s what happens when a committee of nine tries to do the 21st century equivalent of screwing in a light bulb: come up with a web address to describe itself. Flagler County’s fledgling jobs council couldn’t do it.
Rites of Spring: Flagler’s Jobs Council Retreats to Princess Place for Goal-Setting With CEO
For the third time in three years, an economic development effort gets under way to “to lead Flagler County out of the dismal economic landscape” of the last few years, hoping, this time, to make a mark.
Perth Amboy’s Van Eckert Accepts Flagler’s Offer To Be Economic Development CEO
Helga Van Eckert has accepted Flagler County’s government’s offer to become its latest economic development CEO. She will start in late February with a salary of close to $110,000 a year. The future of Greg Rawls, the previous CEO still serving through the transition, is unclear.