- May 2, 2024
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The Flagler County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to allow a group of non-profit organizations housed in an out-building of the former hospital to remain there as the building moves toward a reconstruction that will transform it into a new sheriff’s operations center.
Staff had recommended that the organizations — the Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition, the Flagler Area Ministerial Association and God’s Love Ministries — instead be offered a month-to-month lease agreement and six months to find an alternate location.
But when Pastor Sims Jones of God’s Love Ministries addressed the board to request that the consent agenda item about the lease be pulled for discussion, several commissioners said they wanted to discuss it, as well.
“I remember the day that the reverend and the other individuals in the building started to rehabilitate the building,” Commissioner Charlie Ericksen said. “What is going to happen to this location once the construction starts on the hospital building?”
Ericksen asked Jones and Focus on Flagler Youth Coalition Chairwoman Marion Irving if they had an alternate location in mind. Neither did, and Irving said a month-to-month lease would make it hard for the groups to get grants and keep the ones they already have, at least one of which requires a copy of a lease.
“We have concerns because we have clients that we serve,” she said. “Where would we go?”
Jones said the organizations provide services that were provided by the local Department of Children and Families office before it closed, including providing clothing, food stamps and job-search assistance.
“People can come to look for jobs, send out resumes to find jobs in the community, and we have computers there for them to do that. We’re also giving out free clothes for people who come in. We also direct them to the right agencies in the county where they can get help for things,” he said. “It has really become a community place.”
Commissioner McLaughlin proposed giving the organizations more time. “These organizations have projects that they’re working on,” he said. “I think what they’re asking is that we give them time to relocate."
Commissioner Barbara Revels proposed giving the organizations a year lease with a 60-day opt-out term that could be used by either side if the building becomes unsafe or unusable.
County Administrator Craig Coffey said the building will be moving into the design phase in about three months.
