- April 24, 2024
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+ Calling all saltwater canal homeowners: Let’s organize
Dear Editor:
We purchased a tip lot and built our home in 1980. The early residents enjoyed carefree and laid-back living. Then we had the residents who missed their plush homes, tennis courts, golf courses and shopping centers up north.
I have found that our city department heads tend to ignore the requests of saltwater homeowners who are paying the highest tax rate.
As a homeowner on a saltwater lot as many others do, would you like to form a Saltwater Canal Home Owners Association?
We have the prime pieces of property in the state of Florida, and our city officials ignore our vacant lot problem requests.
To keep our canal lots as a model area, I want the city to adopt the following ordinances:
All vacant saltwater lots adjacent to a home shall be cleared and a lawn installed and maintained at the owner‘s expense (as per Grand Haven). The owners have 30 days to respond, or the city shall contract a lawn service contractor.
As of Dec. 31, 2013, the vacant saltwater canal properties shall install a code-approved seawall.
These vacant properties without seawalls are more than 30 years old, and a large percentage of the soil has eroded into the canal. The Army Corps of Engineers controls the Intracoastal Waterway, and our canals are part of this system.
For safe boating there are certain depths required; I do not know when the last time there were any depth soundings made. I do know there will be a day we all will be paying for a dredging company to lower the depths.
Walter Albano
Palm Coast
+ Dirty beaches hurt tourism; find public funds for cleaning
Dear Editor:
If we are going to market Flagler County and our beaches for tourism, here are a few ideas that need to be considered first:
Let’s clean things up and make it worth visiting to Mr. and Mrs. Vacationer.
Why do we have a department marketing the dirtiest beaches in the area? If we want tourists to come here and spend their money rather than go somewhere else, let’s clean up our beaches. I have never seen such uncaring beachgoers than the ones here. They leave trash, water bottles, baby diapers, food scraps — you name it, and you will find it on Flagler beaches.
There are not enough trash cans, nor any enforcement, for the litterers who deface our shoreline.
And how about “cleaning” the beach sand? The dirty sand should be raked and sifted at least semi-regularly as they do in most other places, e.g., Panama City Beach, St. Augustine, Pensacola.
Let’s spend a little taxpayer money, grant money, or funds we can appropriate from possibly another division for the beaches and clean up our most prized attribute — our beaches and boardwalk.
Make the visitors comfortable. How about some portable toilets? During most occasions when there is a special event, such as Bike Week, the only bathrooms on the pier are conveniently or inconveniently closed. I saw only two portable units on the boardwalk for hundreds of visitors. Really?
We moved here because Palm Coast and Flagler County are beautiful areas and honestly had not even visited the beaches until after we moved here. It was, to say the least, very disappointing and also embarrassing to take visiting family to such a trash-covered dirty beach.
Please, elected officials, find some funds and start taking pride in what our beaches and boardwalk look like so we can proudly solicit tourists.
Jan Adams
Palm Coast
+ Bicyclists should buy bells to warn pedestrians on sidewalks
Dear Editor:
My wife and I are lucky enough to own a timeshare condo on Long Boat Key, near Sarasota. Long Boat has miles of sidewalks and trails similar to what we now have in Palm Coast.
These trails, in both communities, are used primarily by pedestrians and bicyclists. A big difference that I have noticed is that the bicyclists on Long Boat have bells or small horns on their bikes, which they use to warn pedestrians when approaching them from behind.
Many bicycles are nearly silent and tend to startle a pedestrian when they pass from behind, without warning. Also, pedestrians can change direction and walk directly into a bicycle, if they do not know it is approaching. I would guess this has happened more than once in Palm Coast.
Bicycle bells are very inexpensive and would be a greatly appreciated courtesy by pedestrians like myself.
Charlie Dean
Palm Coast
+ Honkers in Palm Coast don’t understand driving etiquette
Dear Editor:
Am I alone in noticing an outbreak in rude driving behavior? Suddenly, everyone is pulling out in front of everyone else, often causing the car behind one to slow abruptly (and sometimes with urgency). Drive down Pine Lakes Parkway to get a little sampling of this. Is it misjudgment or simply a “me-first” attitude?
Then there’s the issue of turning right at a red light. Apparently, many don’t understand that turning right on red is an option, not a requirement; they beep at those who aren’t making the turn, which is totally inappropriate, or they don’t understand that when a driver does turn on red, the car must first come to a complete stop. Honkers obviously don’t know the law (not to mention etiquette).
At medians, it’s legal for one car to be out there waiting to hang a left, but it’s illegal for a second car to join it. More than one car between lanes (as on Belle Terre or U.S. 1) is dangerous, illegal, and rude (cutting off the first driver’s vision).
Let’s lighten up. No one came to this town to be in a hurry, and no one came here to be harassed.
Michael H. Brown
Palm Coast
LET'S DIG A LITTLE DEEPER
+ Lehigh Trail is tick-infested; don’t bring your dog
Dear Editor:
Lehigh Trail is a lovely walkway through the woods, across a bridge — a cool, shady trail with benches and doggie bag dispensers strategically placed.
However, there should be warning signs: Tick-infested area. If you love your dog, don’t walk him anywhere near there. The ticks are horrendous — worse than any place I have ever lived.
And apparently, the city can’t do anything about them. (I’ve already tried calling about this problem.)
So, it’s a good place for joggers, bike riders and just walking (ticks don’t usually bite people, do they?). But sadly, you’ll have to leave your dog at home.
Charlotte Smith
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: Lehigh Trail is in Palm Coast and maintained by Flagler County. According to the University of Florida, a heavy tick infestation can be eliminated by clearing the area of vegetation and potential hosts, such as rodents, or by applying insecticides every two weeks. But, with Lehigh Trail stretching about eight miles, County Communications Manager Carl Laundrie said it would be impractical and environmentally harmful to broadcast that much insecticide.
Ruth Micieli, horticulture program assistant with the University of Florida Agricultural Extension Office, in Bunnell, said the most common ticks in the area are American dog ticks, and they aren’t necessarily worse on Lehigh Trail than in other wooded areas.
A female dog tick lays 4,000 to 6,500 eggs before dying. Ticks then feed three times, once for each developmental stage. The hatched larvae crawl in search of hosts and can live 540 days before feeding.
After feeding, the larvae advance to the nymph stage; nymphs can survive another 584 days without feeding.
Adults can live for two years in the “waiting position,” living along trails and undergrowth, before attaching themselves to humans or, as the ticks would prefer it, to dogs.
To prevent tick bites, humans should use insect repellant with at least 14.25% deet; use a repellant specifically for ticks, such as Advantage Flea Control, to prevent them from attaching to dogs.
Ticks should be removed from dogs or humans as soon as possible.
