- April 18, 2024
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City Manager Jim Landon announced April 27 at a town hall-style meeting at Rymfire Elementary School that the City Council would likely approve a 6-foot-high fence around Ralph Carter Park. The announcement drew claps and roars from a majority of the 60 or so people in attendance.
“A lot of people tell me we have problems at Ralph Carter Park,” Landon said to open the meeting Wednesday night. “My idea was to come out to the neighborhood and get feedback from you all before we try to put together an action plan.”
Marion Petruzzi lives on Richardson Drive, directly across from the back of the park, and she has spearheaded a neighborhood watch in the R-section.
“We’re inundated,” she told Landon and the four Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputies about the number of hooligans causing problems on her street and throughout the entire neighborhood. Petruzzi said the night before the meeting, a group of kids kicked in her garage door “for no reason.”
“I can almost guarantee you a fence is going up,” Landon said. “But I can also tell you the fence is going to be in our code.”
According to Palm Coast ordinance, the fence can’t exceed the city’s 6-foot limit. Residents suggest they need at least an 8-foot-tall fence.
Other residents, though, feel the problem is beyond a fence, and it’s more about “accountability” for the troublemakers' parents — something Flagler County officials can only do so much about.
Cpl. Don Apperson, who leads the school resource unit in Flagler County Schools for the Sheriff's Office, offered a few words to the frustrated residents.
“Stay in the fight,” Apperson said. “We’re going to help you … I’m not telling you to bow down.
For more coverage of the Ralph Carter Park issued, including comments from other residents and Flagler County Sheriff Donald Fleming, see the May 5 issue of the Palm Coast Observer.
