- May 1, 2024
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Dear Editor:
The Flagler Beach drainage system needs to be fixed before the next hurricane season. It does allow the excess rain water to drain into the Intracoastal canals, but it obviously does not have any type of baffle system to prevent the canal from coming up into the streets when the tide is too high.
Not long after the system was completed, I had company at 4 p.m. It was a clear and sunny day. We had not recently had any rain, and the streets were dry. We went to the back of the house by the pool and the canal. Around 5 p.m. we became alarmed to see that there was an unusually high tide. The canal was over the bulkhead and almost up to the pool screen.
After checking the tide chart we learned it would soon be high tide at 5:30. We were very much relieved, but not for long.
As my company was leaving at 6 p.m., we were shocked to see the street was flooded, and was a third of the way up into my driveway.
I have lived in Venice Park, by the Flagler Beach bridge, over 20 years, and had never been flooded. Since the drain system was installed, I have been flooded three times. Now, when the canal water rises too high in a hurricane, it also rises that high in the streets through the drains. When those waters meet, they actually make this section of the island become part of the Intracoastal. It even has the fast-moving canal currents that run right through our houses.
Something has to be done to fix this problem. If the canals can't be stopped from coming up the drains, and into the streets and homes, we should get rid of this drain system. We were much better off with just too much rain water in the streets, than living in the canal during a storm.
Jean Sbertoli
Flagler Beach
On behalf of the Safety on Cimmaron Committee, and in keeping with the spirit of the holidays, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to all who support our goal of making Palm Coast a more walkable, bicycle-friendly community.
We especially appreciate our neighbors who continue to bring awareness to the dangers cyclists and pedestrians face when they traverse the narrow, 1.2-mile stretch of Cimmaron Drive.
Our Christmas wish is that one day soon, an increasingly high-traffic Cimmaron will become a model for our city’s collector road improvements, featuring sidewalks and other safety features.
Palm Coast’s Pedestrian Accommodation Feasibility Study for Residential Collector Roadways, completed this summer by the Jacksonville engineering firm England-Thims & Miller, was an encouraging step toward our Christmas wish coming true. It provides a blueprint for city leaders to improve pedestrian safety on neighborhood collector streets like Cimmaron.
Let’s keep the momentum going in the coming fiscal year and find the funding needed to at least begin improvements to Cimmaron as a pilot project.
Special holiday greetings to outgoing Councilman John Fanelli. Thanks for attending our meetings and for your interest in our committee’s mission. We look forward to your continued support, both as a C Section resident and as a respected leader in our local school system. You understand how safe streets make for safer kids, and we’re grateful for the insights you’ve shared with our committee.
Best holiday wishes also to incoming Councilwoman Theresa Carli Pontieri. We appreciate the genuine interest and legal knowledge you shared when you met with our committee. You recognize the value of making Palm Coast a more walkable, bicycle-friendly community, and it is encouraging to have an ally in one of our newly elected leaders.
Best wishes to all our supporters, and a joyful, safe and merry Christmas to all!
Al Krier
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Bob Snyder and Dr. Stephen Bickel of our Flagler County Health Department have time and again gained our respect for their local efforts in addressing the COVID pandemic.
The department spearheaded the original successful rollout of the vaccine, provided practical science-based COVID information to the public, and did so sometimes against a headwind of false information and outright conspiracy theories emanating from elected officials, a former local School Board member, and even from their boss, the Florida Surgeon General, Joseph Ladapo.
Ladapo has pushed unproven COVID treatments, questioned the safety of vaccines, and spread falsehoods about the pandemic, contradicting science. His ideologies are rejected by the majority of medical experts and the CDC.
Now Snyder and Bickel are facing a rather bizarre announcement from our governor, in lockstep with Ladapo, regarding the empaneling of a grand jury to investigate “any and all wrongdoing” regarding vaccines, without any cited evidence or defining specifics.
Is this grand jury really a grandstanding jury? After all, this is a governor who previously applauded vaccines, putting into question a purely political motivation.
I empathize with Mr. Snyder and Dr. Bickel for once again having to face another affront to science and their continuing efforts to mitigate COVID in our community.
We hope they stand firm in their convictions and continue their good work in support of vaccines. From what we know of the steadfast integrity of these two valuable and respected gentlemen in our Health Department, I’m sure they will.
Robert Gordon
Palm Coast
While I agree with a recent letter writer that the city of Palm Coast should take action against panhandling, that action should be aimed at eliminating the need to panhandle in the first place.
Most panhandlers are probably homeless or addicted to alcohol or drugs. Let's do something to reduce or eliminate those causes.
While it may not be popular, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that panhandling (begging for charitable contributions) is a form of protected free speech under the First Amendment of the Constitution. Local law enforcement cannot prevent a homeless person from holding a sign soliciting funds from a public sidewalk or easement, nor can they detain or demand an ID unless they have reasonable articulable suspicion that person has, is, or will be committing a specific crime.
They cannot be trespassed off a public sidewalk or easement if they have not committed a crime. Homeless are citizens who have the same rights under the Constitution as you and I.
Especially at this time of year and under these circumstances, it is good to be reminded of the Bible verse, "... whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40-45.
Richard Decker
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
Once again, Palm Coast has produced the best and biggest lighted community boat parade in the state of Florida.
Hats off and in the air to the spectators who overloaded their pedometers getting to the ICW to cheer it on, the dedicated marine and land officers who kept it safe and sane, the journalists and photographers who covered
it, Flagler Broadcasting's enthusiastic on-air talent, but, most important of all, the captains and crews who blew out their dock lights draping their boats with enough miles of lights to outshine Times Square.
Thank you, all, for a historic Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade!
Sarah Elizabeth Ulis, Chair, Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade
Palm Coast
