- April 18, 2024
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Dear Editor:
For some time now, I have been a regular bicycle rider in Palm Coast’s C Section, which includes Cimmaron Drive. Recently, however, I switched to a tricycle after riding a two-wheeled bicycle for over 80 years.
I’m still going strong and will continue to use Cimmaron, as well as advocate for improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians in our city.
For several years, the Safety on Cimmaron Committee has been working to bring awareness to this issue.
Committee members are researching available grants that could be used to construct 1.2 miles of sidewalk along Cimmaron. At least one federal grant presently is being reviewed by city administration.
I would like to encourage our residents — both in the C Section and Palm Coast at large — to consider other options for public or private funding that may be available to improve our city’s status as a walkable, bicycle-friendly community.
Members of the Safety on Cimmaron Committee will continue to foster awareness by making presentations before the city council and administration. There have been some safety measures put in place, and council members and administration have been most cooperative.
However, the daily auto count has increased to 3,800 vehicles servicing over 900 houses that must enter and exit Cimmaron to go anywhere.
The situation on Cimmaron continues to be an accident waiting to happen. The need for sidewalks and more speed control must be made a priority.
Again, I encourage our residents to offer any ideas for funding that may help bring this initiative to fruition. Feel free to contact me via the email at [email protected].
Or, just wave me down. Rest assured, I will be in your neighborhood on my new, cherry red three-wheeler, visualizing the new sidewalk soon to exist.
Thank you to everyone who has brought things along to this point.
Al Krier
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I have lived in Palm Coast for 20 years, but I’ve never seen erosion of the dunes like hurricane Ian did.
Today’s high tide reached the base of the dunes, which is now fully exposed and a good 10 feet inland. The top lip of the dunes are now totally unstable and small landslides are happening all the time.
I’ve worked on beach erosion and sea defenses for more then 50 years in England, Canada, Holland and America, and I know what works and doesn’t work.
Precast concrete tetrapods need to be placed along the base of the dunes now while the base is exposed. They should be stacked up the face of the dunes and then concrete pumped into the cavities. This would then be the base for a concrete sea wall, which must include concrete sand spurs every 100 yards or where you want a beach opening.
These spurs will run out at 90 degrees to the wall and form a ramp down to the beach. Their biggest function will be in slowing down sand erosion and making the beaches more sustainable and give the turtles sand to lay their eggs.
The next big hurricane could easily punch holes in the now highly degraded dunes, and Flagler Beach will look like Fort Myers’s.
Let’s not forget that these barrier islands that go down the East Coast of America and around Florida were called barrier islands for a very good reason — because they are nature’s way of protecting the mainland. Then, in the 1900s, speculators and property developers destroyed the natural dunes, building roads and houses.
With 750 billion tons of ice melting every year thanks to global warming — and by 2050 sea levels could be 3 feet higher! — permanent dune restoration with concrete must be started now.
I never want to hear another person mention sand replenishment, either pumping or dumping. Just a few years ago, 28 million dollars was spent on pristine white sand and most was gone within a year. That should all have been spent on concrete!
Trump spent 15 billion on a stupid border wall. That should have all been spent on concrete sea walls!
Keith Vinnicombe
Palm Coast
