- April 19, 2024
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A Flagler County firefighter will fly to Virginia Aug. 27 to battle wildfires in the western U.S. for three weeks, according to a Flagler County government news release.
This is 31-year-old Ron Titus’ fourth trip to battle wildfires in California or Idaho. He’s been a Flagler County firefighter for almost six years, according to the news release.
“I like being a paramedic and fighting structure fires, but wildfire is my thing,” Titus said in the news release. “I like the uncertainty of it. With a wildfire, you can think you have 30 variables of the fire figured out and 60% of the time you’re wrong – something is always going to change.”
Flagler County Fire Chief Don Petito called Titus, a married father of two young girls, “one of our best wildland firefighters.”
“The training we have provided him gives us the ability to send him,” Petito said. “We are very proud to have him represent us.”
Titus enjoys being deployed – or the celebration when he returns home safely, according to the news release. “My girls are five days from being Irish twins,” he said of Blair and Mackenzie, according to the news release. “We made one after I returned from Washington and the other after I returned from Idaho.”
Flagler County may create two stormwater assessment districts to help drainage systems in the Hammock, according to a Flagler County government news release.
That would mean creating a new stormwater outfall — a place where the system discharges — and a new stormwater treatment facility and a new drainage collection system for the area north of Bay Drive to Washington Oaks State Park.
In February 2014, the county adopted a stormwater improvement plan for the area and began moving forward toward implementation. The improvements are intended to minimize property damage and drainage hazards and improve the quality of runoff entering the Intracoastal and the Matanzas River.
“Flagler County commissioners will consider adopting the non-ad valorem assessments for the 2016-17 fiscal year and continuing thereafter for drainage improvements and maintenance for the two new districts: the North MalaCompra Drainage Basin District and the Marineland Acres Drainage Basin District,” County Administrator Craig Coffey said, according to the news release. “We have been successful in securing millions of dollars of outside funding for the two districts, but a local assessment is needed to close funding gaps in the overall project.”
The County Commission will consider the issue at a Sept. 12 meeting. For more information, go to flaglercounty.org/malacompra, call the hotline number at 386-313-4073 (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. through Sept. 16), or go to an informal, open house informational meeting at 6-7:30 p.m. Sept. 1 at the Hammock Community Center at 79 MalaCompra Road.
After a successful trial run this summer, the city of Palm Coast is expanding its formal college internship program, according to a government news release.
“The city is hoping to recruit a multitude of strong candidates to fulfill identified needs within city departments,” according to her news release.
Flagler Schools alumnae and current college students Maeve Dineen and Lauren Umpenhour helped implement the intern program program and create guidelines for sustaining it.
The internship program will have about 16 paid internships for college students in the summer of 2017. The application period will open Dec. 1, 2016.
Visit palmcoastgov.com/internships to see “The Internship Experience” video and learn more about the internship opportunities.
For more information, contact Communications and Marketing Manager Cindi Lane at 986-3708 or [email protected].
