OPINION: Why is the Community Center for a few costing the rest of us $8 million?

Also in letters to the editor: A call for a bike bath on Old Kings to prevent further tragedy; and, Help plead the case for a second judge in Flagler.


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  • | 1:00 p.m. January 24, 2017
  • Palm Coast Observer
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A new low in squandering tax dollars: $8 million community center

Dear Editor:

According to your paper, the new city government has picked up the gauntlet; they have accepted the challenge. Prior city governments have wasted money on dog parks, built and maintained some of the most expensive street medians in Florida, built a very ugly City Hall that only they wanted, and financed a money-losing golf course/country club for the folks in the "C" section.

The new City Council and the mayoress, as one of their first official acts, is going to waste/spend/squander 8 million American dollars on expanding the Community Center!

It seems the fine folks that have meetings at the Community Center need more room, so they (the powers that be) are going to shut down the Community Center for over a year so the folks will have more room to meet.

While it is shut down, these folks will have to go to other venues to meet. Well, duh: If these other places exist, why don't they meet there? Or better yet, they could build their own building and meet 24 hours a day at their own expense — not at mine — and the city government could take the 8 million American dollars and build a pit bull dog park.

You didn't think they would give it back to the taxpayers, did you?

Douglas Glover

Palm Coast

 

Lack of bike path led to tragedy; build one near Matanzas

Editor’s Note: This letter was also sent to Mayor Milissa Holland and the rest of the Palm Coast City Council.

Dear Editor:

My name is Jake Scully, and on Dec. 17, 1992, my father, Vincent Scully, was killed while riding his bicycle on Old Kings Road.

I will spare you the details of the impact that tragedy had on my family, his friends and those he helped in this community. But to his wife, nine children, their families and the hundreds who came to pay respects, the loss was, and still is, huge.

Not a day has gone by since New Year’s Eve, 2016, that I do not think about how Kelvin Smith was killed on the same road and essentially for the same reason.

Both areas of Old Kings do not have bicycle/multiuse paths.

The difference is that my father was killed south of Utility Drive, and Kelvin was killed within two miles of Matanzas High School.

While I would love a connecting bike path on Old Kings south, a safe path to a school attended by hundreds of kids like Kelvin is a far higher priority.

It is terribly sad that the Smith family has to suffer the enduring loss of the death of Kelvin due to this preventable tragedy. Speaking from experience, nothing and no amount of time will erase their pain. 

However, the city of Palm Coast can do something:

Prevent further tragedies by building a bicycle path from Frontier north to connect with the paths that go to Matanzas. This city has some of the most wonderful bike paths I have ever seen, but it is completely illogical not to have this one.

Please advise if I can be of some service in getting this done — including slinging a shovel.

 

Jake Scully

Palm Coast

 

Contact the Legislature to ask for a second county judge

Dear Editor:

As a result of continued growth, Flagler County has reached a population of over 100,000 residents. Flagler County has one very capable and over-worked county judge, Melissa Moore Stens. Our legislators, State Sen. Travis Hudson and State Rep. Paul Renner, as well as most of the elected officials in Flagler County, support the appointment of an additional county judge.

The Florida Supreme Court has already certified the need for an additional judge in Flagler County.

The next step is to get the Florida Legislature to approve the funding for an additional judge. To that end, we are asking the citizens of Flagler County to contact all the legislators below to ask them to vote in favor of funding for an additional judge in Flagler.

— Richard Corcoran, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, 850-717-5650, [email protected]

— Bill Hager, House Appropriations Committee, 850-717-5089, [email protected]

— Joe Negron, president of the Florida Senate, 850-487-5229, [email protected]

— Jack Latvala, Senate Appropriations chairman, 850-487-5016, [email protected]

Ed Fuller and Ralph Lightfoot

Palm Coast

 

Send letters of general interest about local topics to [email protected]

 

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