- May 6, 2024
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Bringing all of the city’s landscaping work in-house has paid financial dividends, city officials announced Tuesday.
After dropping Fox Landscaping in May, the city has saved about $65,000 by having its own crews take over the work, said Tony Capela, streets superintendent for the city.
In addition to the landscaping, fields have been added at the Indian Trails Sports Complex, sidewalks have been completed and lift stations were upgraded. All of those projects would have cost the city even more money if an outside company was doing the work. But because city crews now do the work, several of those additional projects have been completed at a much cheaper price.
City Councilman Bill McGuire, who has asked for a cost-savings analysis for weeks now, said he was satisfied with the work Capela’s crews have done. McGuire did say he would have liked to see a dollar amount associated with the additional projects the city crews took on to see a more accurate financial savings.
“You’ve done a magnificent job of what you’ve been assigned to do, but the fact is you’ve sold yourself short,” McGuire said.
City clarifies house color code
In a cooperative effort between city staff and the Flagler Home Builders Association, the city has clarified its code rules that regulate exterior home colors.
Changes allow for darker garage doors, darker earth tones for main wall color (both commercial and residential), accent colors are clarified, and earth tones and prohibited colors are further defined.
“It seems like small changes, but it’s big changes to home builders and to staff,” said Beau Falgout, the city’s senior economic development planner. “These clarification issues cause headaches, to say the least. It’s nothing outside of what we already see in the community.”
City Manager Jim Landon added: "The neighbor won’t know that when the new house goes up, the change occurred. It’s very consistent with what the neighborhoods are used to, but it gets rid of the headaches. It’s more consistent with our practice.”
