Palm Coast Observer 10-27-22

beginnings

Photo by Brian McMillan

The Matanzas boys

Sean Rouzier, Jett Waldem Brandon

Michael Fabre, coach

Morgan Naydich, Christian Martin, Grant McMillan and Mason Evans.

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Paul Renner at the Highjackers Restaurant in Flagler County.

WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

BY THE NUMBERS

Planning board votes against marina development

After more than two hours of review, the Palm Coast planning and zoning board voted 6-0 on Oct. 19, to deny a request to alter a planned unit development for Harborside Inn and Marina.

The development is located at the intersection of Palm Harbor Parkway and Clubhouse Drive on 17.64 mixed-use acres, and initially appeared before the city’s Planning and Development Regulation Board on Sept. 20. That meeting ended in a continuance for the applicant and city staffers to work out the issues preventing the request from mov ing forward to the Palm Coast City Council with the board’s recommen dation.

The Oct. 19 meeting still found the applicant in non-compliance with the city’s Comprehensive Plan policies and land use requirements, according to the meeting’s docu ments.

The main issue, in both meetings, was the proposed density for the lot. The request originally featured two options, where the applicant could take either one.

The Harborside owners, JDI Palm Coast, LLC and Palm Coast Resort Community Association, Inc., orig inally requested several updates to the development’s 2005-approved design, via a rezoning.

residential

units

was

The concept for a new master site plan would keep the current park ing garage, ship store and exist ing condominium units, and add a stand-alone restaurant and resi dential space and potentially a hotel, according to meeting documents.

The first option features just apartments and townhomes and would add a total of 432 residential units. Option two has residential units and a condominium hotel; it adds 402 units.

Both options include the exist ing 72 units in their calculations and would bring the density to 25 or 26 units per acre, respectively.

That’s more than 10 units above the mixed-use density cap of 15 units/acre, according to the city’s planning staff. The limit should be 254 units, according to Senior Plan ner Bill Hoover.

Hoover said city staff have asked the applicant to meet eight standards in order to justify and receive a 22% density increase to 18.3 units/acre. That would allow the applicant 310 units on 16.94 residential-use acres or 273 units on 14.94 residential-use acres, based on the two plan options, according to planning and zoning documents.

The standards listed in the docu mentation ensure public benefits, like building the sit-down restaurant to seat at least 75 patrons; maintain ing a “clean marina” designation from the Department of Environ mental Protection; keeping the marina available for public use.

Hoover said the applicant respond ed by saying they would meet “one or more” of the standards in return for more units, calling them “density bonus incentive conditions.”

The “bonus” units would cap at 432, the original maximum amount requested in option one of the con cept plan.

“The applicant responded back and basically sort of made it an a la carte

— BILL HOOVER, Senior Planner

menu, that you would get certain bonus units for doing it,” Hoover said.

The crowd that showed up for the meeting’s public comment period began to laugh at the number of con cessions staff said the applicant had requested for the eight standards.

Board Chairman Clinton Smith admonished them to refrain from any form of comment outside of the public comment period.

Attorney Jay Livingston, rep resenting JDI Palm Coast, LLC., defended the owners’ position.

The owners have to ensure eco nomic viability to maintain the

marina, parking garage and other amenities at the location, Livingston said, or nothing could be done at all.

“We have to achieve a certain economy of scale,” Livingston said, “and the number that we came up with … is what we have determined to achieve that.”

Though the meeting mainly focused on the issue of the stan dards, local residents told the board that they were concerned about how the density would affect their qual ity of life.

They said they worried about the influx of traffic, the availability of parking, the strain on the sewage system, and, in a post-HurricaneIan Florida, evacuation speeds.

Paul Bailey, who lives in the Palm Coast Resort already on the lot, said that if a hurricane hit that area, it would cause a major disaster due to traffic problems.

“When it comes to the traffic in that area, that is an emergency egress, and you’re compounding the problem,” Bailey said.

“The applicant responded back and basically sort of made it an a la carte menu that you would get certain bonus units for doing it.”

Image courtesy of the city of Palm Coast

The Harborside Inn and Marina is at the intersection of Palm Harbor Parkway and Clubhouse Drive in Palm Coast.

The rise of a leader

Paul Renner is about to be the speaker of the House. Here’s how faith and freedom combined to form his political views. The first of a two-part profile.

BRIAN MCMILLAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Today, it may seem like a foregone conclusion that, in November 2022, Paul Renner will become Florida’s speaker of the House, one of the three most powerful politicians in a state that’s increasingly in the national spotlight. But eight years ago, in summer 2014, Renner’s political future appeared to be over before it began.

He lived in Jacksonville at the time, and he had just lost — by three votes — the Aug. 26, 2014, primary for District 15 in the Florida House of Representatives. After the manda tory recount, one vote was added to his tally, meaning he had lost by only two: 5,962 to 5,960.

But 143 mail-in ballots had been tossed out, due to mismatched sig natures. Were any of those ballots actually votes that could be count ed for Renner? Could he still have a chance?

Renner and his campaign decided to find out. One staffer went to a voter’s address and noticed a Renner sign in the front yard. That sounded promising, and it was. When the staffer knocked on the door, he met James Rushin, a 77-year-old Navy veteran — someone who Renner later would say looked like he was “right out of central casting,” per fect for the role of righting a wrong in an election. Rushin said he hadn’t known his vote had been invalidated, and he told the staffer, “That’s my signature. I voted for Renner.”

Rushin agreed to go directly to the Duval County Canvassing Board to make his case. “Both signatures are mine,” he told them.

According to a TV report by Action News Jax, the board debated for about an hour, looking at the two signatures, with Rushin’s testimo ny in mind. The law, however, was made clear by the board attorney: The only pieces of evidence a Can vassing Board can consider are the two signatures. Do they match, or do they not?

“I have no doubt he’s the person — I have no doubt whatsoever — but what we have as the law to go by is all we can go by,” Canvassing Board member Doyle Carter told Action News Jax.

The Canvassing Board voted 2-1 against Rushin, meaning the margin of defeat remained two votes.

Was the election officially over? Had Renner lost? Not quite.

There was one more avenue. As Supervisor of Elections Jerry Hol land said, the Canvassing Board vote could be challenged in court.

Renner, who himself was an attor

ney, was at home, in Jacksonville, with his wife, when he made his decision. His campaign consultant was on the phone, talking strategy, and then Renner said no.

“I decided that the right thing to do is to not litigate,” he told me in an interview eight years later, in May 2022. “There was a point in which — for whatever reason — I wasn’t sup posed to win that race.”

To understand why he felt that way, it’s useful to know something of his life story leading up to that point. Over the course of about four hours of interviews, Renner reflect ed on his upbringing, his faith, his belief in freedom and the Constitu tion, and how he came to eventually represent Palm Coast in the House, just eight months after that loss in Jacksonville.

LETTER OF THE LAW

Renner felt he had exhausted his legal avenues in the 2014 primary at the time (the laws have since changed to enable further challenges). He felt that even if a sympathetic judge were to go against the Canvassing Board’s ruling, the judge would not be fol lowing the letter of the law.

“A judge that is a textualist, which I believe judges should be, wouldn’t have had the choice [to overturn the election]” Renner said. If Renner were to fight the matter further, he said, “I just felt like at that point, it would be more me striving for what I want. It would have been more about me and not about what I believe in.”

There was a silence in the Flagler Broadcasting conference room, until I suggested a summary of what he’d just said: “And you believe in … the letter of the law.”

He said, “Absolutely.”

He also believed that God was involved.

“I had prayed about it, and I felt like I should run, that it was the right time to put myself out for public ser vice,” Renner said. “And I felt like if I were going to contest that in a law suit, that was more about me.”

I asked Renner if he felt that since he felt inspired to run, that meant that God was also promising him a victory?

“No. I view with skepticism the idea that that’s how we interact with God,” he said. “I think our obligation is to find the right path and walk it. There’s a difference between being obedient and praying about it and feeling like it was the right thing for me to do to offer myself up for public service.

“And I felt very comfortable about that — still do — about that race. I think it was the right thing to do. I do feel — I did feel — a calling, if you will, to put my name out there. But I felt it was about running. Not neces sarily that God told me I was going to win.”

And so, Renner called Jay Fant and conceded and said he would endorse Fant in the 2014 general election. But after that phone call, Renner felt dis appointed to say the least.

From his father, he had inher ited a love of serving others. He had entered the Navy because of that sense of higher purpose. And now

that his career in the Navy was over, he felt he could continue serving his country in politics. But it was not to be.

After conceding the 2014 elec tion, he recalls commiserating with his wife.

“There was 10 or 15 minutes of kicking the dirt,” he said. “I’m a human being.”

THE MINISTER’S SON Renner’s belief in the letter of the law may have been instilled in him by his father, Arville, who trained in the seminary at Emory University in Atlanta, where Renner was born, in 1967.

Renner’s father became a Method ist minister and led congregations in Maryland, as well as in Florida — Vero Beach, Merritt Island, and then Jacksonville. But his father didn’t agree with the direction the church was taking at the time. The semi nary, as Renner remembers it from his childhood, was questioning the Christian tenet of the virgin birth.

“Things that are supernatural or miraculous make some people uncomfortable,” Renner said, but faith is not something that can be compromised; either Jesus was born of a virgin or he wasn’t. Bending that doctrine, which is made clear in the Bible, was an example of bending principle to fit with society.

Looking back on that time, Renner believes that by questioning the vir gin birth, “at the seminary, they had kind of gone woke before we had woke.” He said, “The liberal tilt of mainline Protestant churches was going in a direction of saying, ‘Look, we’re going to take pieces from the Bible that we’re comfortable with and leave the rest aside.’”

Renner remembers his father being disappointed with the church. “It began his exit,” he said.

“There’s a Truth with a capital T, and we can disagree over what that is,” he continued. “And I am cer tain, in humility, that I am wrong on many, many fronts about what that Truth is. I am also certain that there is one. So some churches have become, in some quarters, polluted, becoming just a spiritualized version of current society.”

I asked Renner if any of his father’s sermons stood out to him, any say ings that he lived by.

At first he said he didn’t remem ber anything specific, but then one came to mind: “How do you spell love? T-I-M-E.”

There was another pause in the conversation, as Renner was fight ing back tears.

“That meant something to you,” I said, a half-question, half-observa tion.

“Yes,” he said. He then said that the conversation was focusing a lot on his upbring ing and his father’s faith. “This part didn’t really influence my politics.”

But I suggested that Renner’s faith and his politics are impossible to separate. He had told me that he felt satisfied with his 2014 loss and declined to pursue further legal chal lenges — because he felt that God was satisfied. God didn’t want him to fight it any further.

He then said something that bridged the conversation between church and politics.

“I think you see the churches that are thriving are those that have stuck to principles,” he said.

“No matter how unpopular they might get,” I said.

“Yes,” Renner said.

“Do you think that’s what DeSan tis is doing right now?”

“Yes,” Renner said, “but here’s the difference. And this is where I want to try to articulate that experience growing up. I believe in the rule of law, in the Constitution, but I don’t see myself as an ideologue — at all.”

I asked him, “Do you think some people assume you are an ideo logue?”

“Of course. I think most people assume that the parties have become too ideological on both sides. But I don’t see myself as ideological.”

His unflinching belief in the Bible is similar to his belief in the Consti tution, and that explains why he is unwilling to compromise, politically, on some issues.

“We don’t get to pick and choose our Constitution,” Renner said. “People don’t get to pick and choose the laws they like. We, as a com munity, come together and agree on that. And to me, the beauty of the Constitution is not that you think like me, or that you’re a Christian or Republican. It’s that the Constitu tion protects people who seem to be the exact opposite of me. But it only does so if we’re all totally commit ted to it, if we have an orthodox view that free speech is free for everybody. Speech that I deem contemptuous is still free.”

‘IT WAS PROVIDENCE’

As a child, Renner met in his home some missionaries who had returned from China and other countries, exposing him to the idea that people in other countries didn’t all enjoy the same freedoms he did in the United States. Looking back, he said, the first political position he took was not about taxes or education but about freedom of speech. During the Cold War, he realized, “Wow, there’s some places where you can’t even say anything or your parents will be thrown in jail.” He said, “That felt wrong.”

He looked at the world map and saw, for the first time, not just lines and colors, but a struggle: There were forces for freedom and forces for control. He remembers think ing, with some trepidation, “Are we going to win?” That led to another question: “What can I do to help?”

As a teenager and in college, he came to see history as the story of freedom vs. control. He saw that the more free people were, the more prosperous they were.

Religious freedom was one exam ple of that. He decided: “My aim was not to make everyone share my faith. My aim is to make everyone free.”

After high school, Renner was offered a full ride scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University. But he also visited a small school called Davidson, in North Carolina, that he loved. The problem was, he was wait listed at Davidson, while Vanderbilt

“We don’t get to pick and choose our Constitution. People don’t get to pick and choose the laws they like. We, as a community, come together and agree on that. And to me, the beauty of the Constitution is not that you think like me, or that you’re a Christian or Republican. It’s that the Constitution protects people who seem to be the exact opposite of me. But it only does so if we’re all totally committed to it, if we have an orthodox view that free speech is free for everybody. Speech that I deem contemptuous is still free.”

PAUL RENNER

was a sure thing.

He recalls going to his attic to think. He was looking for a sign, something to tell him that he wasn’t insane to plan for Davidson over Vanderbilt. “Maybe I need a slap in the face,” he recalls thinking.

In the attic, he found, among other books that had been left behind by the previous owner of the house, a copy of “Paradise Lost,” by John Mil ton. He opened the cover and saw a stamp indicating that this book, decades earlier, had once belonged to the library at Davidson College.

“It was very weird,” Renner recalled. “But I felt like it was Provi dence.”

He still has the book.

IN THE MILITARY

After Davidson, Renner decided to join the military. Growing up in Jack sonville, he was surrounded by Navy families, so it seemed to be a natu ral path. He also wanted to be part of that great battle for freedom that he had been exposed to as a younger person. And there was a third rea son: He wanted to serve someday in a political office. To do that, he knew he needed to do something mean ingful with his life, to become the type of person who would be worth voting for.

Years later, in his speech to the Florida House on Sept. 21, 2021, he told his fellow legislators what he learned in the Navy:

“The military taught me about keeping the right perspective. I had the privilege to serve in Operation Desert Storm and, 20 years later, in Afghanistan.

“When you receive deployment orders, reality sinks in there’s a chance you may never come home.

“In a real way though, it’s liberat ing. You begin to think about what really matters in life, what you would truly miss if you don’t come back, and, in the end, what is worth dying for. …

“When you determine what’s on that list, when you know who and what you are willing to die for, you also discover that those are the only things worth living for. Everything else is a distraction.”

When he returned from Opera tion Desert Storm, he entered law school. And while other students were stressed out about exams, he was thinking, “This isn’t so bad: Nobody’s shooting at us, nobody’s lobbing a mortar at us.”

He finished law school six months early. He worked in Venezuela so he could learn Spanish better, and he worked in both Miami and Jackson ville, often commuting four hours, to launch his career as an attorney.

In 2013, he and Adriana were mar ried. Shortly afterward, the District 15 seat opened up, and he decided to run for office, with his wife’s sup port.

But, it was not to be. He lost in that 2014 primary. And he was left think ing, What next? Practice law for the rest of my life?

ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY

Renner’s wife wanted to live by the water, and they decided they couldn’t afford Jacksonville’s waterfront prices. So, after the election, moving south was appealing. He also learned of a fortuitous political opportunity: Another House seat — a Republicanleaning seat — was likely going to open up, in Palm Coast.

That fall, in 2014, John Thrasher was up for re-election to the Florida Senate, and Travis Hutson was up for re-election to the Florida House, both representing Flagler County. The rumor was, Thrasher was going to become the next president of Florida State University, and he would then resign his Senate seat.

Paul Renner

Courtesy photo

Renner’s political beginnings

Hutson was expected to win reelection to his House seat and then resign and announce his candidacy for Thrasher’s Senate seat in a spe cial election.

It happened just so, and that meant House District 24 was up for grabs, with no incumbent. The timeline was brisk: The special primary was scheduled for Jan. 27, 2015, and the general election would be April 2015.

Did Renner move to Palm Coast because he wanted to live by the water, or so he could have another chance at Tallahassee? Or both?

No matter the answer, when he moved to Palm Coast and announced his candidacy for District 24, social media chatter showed how some locals felt about Renner:

“Didn’t Fant beat you?”

“Are you running again???”

When Renner posted on Facebook that he stood for strong schools, someone responded: “How dows [sic] that qualify him to represent Flagler and St. Johns County? Did you ever even walk past a school?

Another posted: “What does the term Carpet Bagger mean?”

Milissa Holland, a Flagler County commissioner from 2006 to 2012, heard about this new candidate, Paul Renner, from an old friend whom she respected: Thrasher himself.

Thrasher told her that Renner “was an individual who held deep to his beliefs and values system, and it never altered,” she recalled. Hutson echoed Thrasher’s praise of Renner, and Holland looked forward to meet ing him.

So, when Renner called and asked her for a lunch meeting to gain some perspective from a longtime Flagler County resident, she gladly accept ed. They met at Mezzaluna in Euro pean Village, in Palm Coast, and, in an Oct. 4, 2022, phone interview, she

remembered it well. Renner ordered a calzone; Holland had pizza.

She recalled: “I was definitely not oblivious to people’s viewpoint” that Renner was “someone new coming in” to run for the local House seat. But, “I’m an optimist,” she told me. “I like to meet the person before making any preconceived positions about the ‘why.’”

She was sympathetic to Renner’s yearning to serve in Tallahassee; she had felt it, too, leading her to run to represent District 24 in 2012, though she lost to Hutson. Her respect for politicians developed early; she had grown up in the home of her father, James Holland, one of Palm Coast’s original City Council members, who had introduced her to respected state leaders such as William L. Proctor, who served as president of Flagler College from 1971 to 2001 and later represented District 20 in the Florida House, from 2004 to 2012.

“He’s very open about the fact that he had a calling to serve,” Holland said of Renner. “I don’t think there were ever any secrets made about his intention to run.”

At lunch, she told Renner about recent Flagler County history, the struggle for supremacy over water utilities, the incorporation of the city of Palm Coast, the community’s pride in its natural beauty and ethnic diversity.

“He struck me as someone who

was very interested in the details,” she recalled. “He didn’t talk a tre mendous amount about himself.”

Renner met with other community leaders as he began his campaign. Some of the volunteers who helped him with his Jacksonville campaign followed him to Palm Coast and helped there.

“We had a good feeling on the ground,” he recalled. “My back ground as a military veteran, former prosecutor … was resonating.”

FAITH-AFFIRMING

Still, considering how close his Jack sonville loss had been, he wasn’t tak ing anything for granted.

“I knew that every day counted, every door counted,” he said. “The race could come down to two votes. So that was a motivator.”

He won the Republican primary, in January, with 73% of the vote.

He won again in April, this time with 67% of the vote.

And so, eight months after that two-vote loss in Jacksonville, he was in Palm Coast — European Vil lage, to be precise — celebrating his victory. Soon, he would be sitting not far from his Jacksonville opponent, Fant.

“It’s a little bit surreal,” he recalled, “because you’re seeing your name being reported. You’re realizing that people are actually going out there and voting for you.

“It’s an impression that I’ll never forget, which I think is special about our democracy: that [voters] have a chance to go out and talk to [can didates], have a chance to evaluate you, get kind of a gut read on who you are, and whether you’re an authentic person or not an authentic person.”

Renner and his wife left the victory party at 11 p.m. But there was no time for further celebration that night: The legislative session was already in progress.

He drove home, packed a bag, and hit the road. They arrived in Talla hassee at 2 a.m. April 8.

Later on April 8, he was sworn in. By the afternoon, he was hearing bills on the House floor.

Eight years later, Renner is poised not only to win his third election but also to become speaker of the House. Would he be in this situation if he had won the Jacksonville seat in 2014 instead?

Looking back, Renner said, in our May 20, 2022, interview, that los ing in Jacksonville “turned out to be the very best thing politically.” He thought back to a week in summer 2014, when he was sick and unable to campaign down the stretch. Would that extra week of knocking doors in Jacksonville have tipped the scale in his favor, helping him overcome the ultimate two-vote deficit? He had

fretted about that in the weeks after ward, but not after the 2015 special election.

Winning in Palm Coast, he said, “was very much a faith-affirming moment.”

“We’re human beings,” he said, “and we strive for what we want, but not necessarily, like [the Rolling Stones] say, what we need.”

Renner in the Navy

Courtesy photo

Photo by Brian McMillan

Paul Renner at the Highjackers Restaurant in Flagler County

Volusia County Council votes 4-1 not to discuss ‘toilet to tap’

Jeff Brower sought an ordinance prohibiting blackwater reuse. The council opted to simply stop talking about the issue instead.

JARLEENE ALMENAS SENIOR EDITOR

Volusia County Council Chair Jeff Brower’s hopes for a county ordinance to pro hibit a “toilet-to-tap” initia tive were flushed away when council members approved a motion to never discuss the issue again — or, at least, not until a new council has been sworn into office.

At the council’s meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 18, Brower asked to add an agenda item about a potable water reuse ordinance. He said he wanted to “clear up some public mis understanding” about black water reuse and lay out what the county could legally do. This wasn’t the first time Brower had brought the issue forward; on Aug. 16, Coun cilwoman Heather Post — who was absent at the Oct. 18 meeting — made a motion to direct the county to look at a charter amendment to regulate blackwater, but her motion died for lack of a sec ond.

State law preempts local governments from prohib iting potable water reuse in many areas, and Senate Bill 64 requires local governments to authorize potable reuse water graywater technology “under specific circumstances,” according to a county memo from Aug. 15. Graywater includes waste

from baths, bathroom faucets and laundries, while blackwa ter includes water from toi lets. The county memo states that, while Volusia can’t pro hibit blackwater technology countywide, it could prohibit it within the county’s utility service area.

Only the city of Daytona Beach has proposed a toiletto-tap initiative, in 2018, and the city never implemented it.

In 2020, the state directed the Florida Department of Envi ronmental Protection to draft rules for potable reuse.

Brower said that by adopting an ordinance against black water technology, the county would provide a template for municipalities to adopt in the future, while keeping the focus on the aquifer.

“I think this takes our eye off it,” Brower said. “I think if we allow toilet-to-tap to go along, it says we’re just going to keep developing the way that we are and worry about the water later, because we can always drink toilet-totap. I think our focus needs to be on conservation, on the way that we grow, where we’re growing, preserving our water.”

He said that an anti-toi let-to-tap ordinance would improve tourism and there fore better the economy.

But Councilman Ben John son said he believed the coun cil was trying to find a solu tion to a nonexistent problem.

“Nobody’s talking about this,” Johnson said. “The first we ever heard about it was Mr. Brower, frankly — you bring ing it up — and it’s all been political.”

Brower said the state has indicated that reuse initiates are coming in the future, so

now would be the time to draft measures to preempt them.

Johnson said the issue could be discussed in January 2023, once the new council is sworn in. Johnson is not running for reelection. Brower said he would bring it up again.

Johnson’s motion passed 4-1, with Brower voting against. Post and Councilman Danny Robins were absent.

After the vote, Council woman Barb Girtman said she didn’t object to discussing the reuse issue, but felt there was no reason to bring it up again now.

“I don’t know what the rea sonings are,” she said. “I’m not going to make assump tions about what they are, but I’m not sure why you brought it back at this time when there’s no critical issue in the next 90 days to address when we have so many other criti cal issues on our table, com ing two weeks behind a major hurricane.”

you need Hearing Aids or Better Hearing?

Dr. Indira Álvarez, Clinical Director & Owner Palm Coast Hearing Center

We have patients every day in our hearing center that contact us because they think they need hear ing aids. The reality is that what they are actually searching for is better hearing, and they hope that a hearing aid will provide exactly that. The not-so-simple answer is that hearing aids may or may not be the answer to their troubles.

Hearing and understanding (spe cifically speech) is a complex and marvelous function of the human body, and it involves not only your

ears but also your brain. In fact, the brain is the most important part of the mechanism in human hearing.

Most places that advertise hearing services or hearing aids focus on just that- the hearing aid. Wheth

er you are considering an over the counter (OTC) hearing aid or a prescription hearing aid, it is important that you realize that the hearing aid is only one small part of improving your hearing. Most hearing aid offices focus on a simple hearing test and then go straight to the hearing aid recommendation. At Palm Coast and Ormond Hear ing Centers, we focus on the total hearing system, from the ear to the brain, and including other aspects like your vision, tactile ability, and cognitive processing ability. As a Doctor of Audiology, my primary goal is to medically evaluate you to get a complete picture of your auditory abilities. In addition to tone testing, we also test the outer hair cells of the cochlea (the little snail shaped organ of hearing deep inside your ear that connects to the auditory nerve, leading to the brain), the eardrum (to make sure there are no tears or damage, or flu id build-up like an ear infection), and words and sentences, in both quiet and noisy environments. We incorporate cognitive screenings and functional testing on your fine motor skills. The cognitive aspect of our evaluation is to look at how your brain processes the sounds that the ear is sending. For exam ple, I see many patients in my prac tice who have little to no hearing loss yet still struggle understand ing speech, especially in environ ments where there are competing noises (the tv in the background, the water running in the kitchen, or talkers sitting at a table behind you in a restaurant). These patients may not have a hearing problem, they have a PROCESSING prob lem. A hearing aid may help, but

ing” problems. As audiologists we are the only specialists qualified to diagnose and treat auditory processing conditions. This can mean the accurate fitting of a pre scription hearing device, but many times that is not the treatment that is appropriate. There are different types of auditory training therapy and complementary devices avail

to assess which devices or therapies will be appropriate. An example is a 52-year-old patient that has com plaints that when she is in a restau rant with her husband, she could not understand anything he was saying- the noise was so loud and distracting, even though she could HEAR him, she could not under stand him. However, when they were at home eating dinner togeth er, she had no issues. Her evalua tion revealed that she had a very mild hearing loss but a moderate auditory processing deficit, and mild neuropathy in her hands. She also had vision loss corrected by glasses. Her treatment plan includ ed prescription hearing aids that were programmed to reduce noise and emphasize speech that she needed to wear only in noisy situ ations- they were easy to adjust via an app on her phone so she didn’t have to worry about tiny buttons to push, and 12 weeks of audito ry training therapy which she was able to complete at home while receiving follow-up visits with me every 4 weeks to make sure she was on track. Her auditory processing skills improved significantly and at post-therapy testing her pro cessing scores have improved to a normal level.

Sadly, if this patient had gone to a hearing aid store to get a “free” hearing test, she would have been told her hearing loss was too minimal for hearing aids and sent on her way. She would have continued

to struggle, and her processing skills would have continued to worsen over time.

As audiologists, we see patients every day that have a variety of hearing complaints, that can range anywhere from a wax impaction (we remove wax and make sure that your ear canals are healthy), “stuffed-up ears”, difficulty hearing in noise, difficulty understanding speech from fast speakers, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), and difficul ty hearing soft sounds. We are here to help you understand the source of your hearing difficulties and get you back on the road to great hear ing, so you can enjoy your life!

At Palm Coast and Ormond Hearing Centers, our mission is to provide the best quality hearing care possible, educate the community and help all patients make informed decisions so they can get the care they need and deserve. Want to learn more about hearing health? Visit our website at palmcoasthearingcenter.com and click the “About” button, then “Helpful Articles”. You can also schedule an appointment online. We also have a second location to serve you in Ormond Beach at ormondhear ingcenter.com, or you can call us at 386-283-4932.

include vision and fine motor skills

“Nobody’s talking about this. The first we ever heard about it was Mr. Brower, frankly — you bringing it up — and it’s all been political.”

BEN JOHNSON, councilman

that they were not to interfere with the gymnastics area.”

OCT. 17

AN ODD COMBINATION

3 p.m. — 50 block of Presi dent Lane, Palm Coast Residential burglary. A new residential build was broken into on President Lane over the Oct. 14-16 weekend.

When an employee returned to check the home on Oct. 17, the sliding back door was ajar, according to the police incident report.

$450 in

some drywall, and two

items: a $400 Whirl

out of the

and a $50 sil

ripped

FALLING OUT OF FAVOR

a.m. — 400 block of South Nova Road, Ormond Beach Burglary of a structure. No good deed goes unpunished?

report that a 27-yearold Holly Hill man stole over $4,000 from a local gymnas tics studio after the building owner allowed him to stay in a mobile home at the back of the property.

According to a police report, the property owner had recently befriended a homeless couple and gave them permission to come and go from the building, but that there was “an understanding

However, on the morning of Oct. 17, the gymnastics studio owner spotted the man loading various items into the back of a minivan. He was also holding a backpack with her business’ logo. She confronted him about it, and the man said the building owner had given him permis sion to use the backpack if he needed it.

She then inventoried her studio and noticed several items missing, including an Apple iWatch, iPhone, cheer shoes and approximately $800 in cash. Her business’ square device was also stolen.

Police spoke with the build ing owner, who denied giving the man a key to the building, but said he allowed him to ac cess the building to perform maintenance work and use the restroom. The owner was in denial and disbelief that the man would steal from the studio, and alleged internal theft, according to the police report.

During the course of the investigation, police officers discovered the man had given the building owner a false name, and that on Oct. 20, the man had been arrested for auto theft in Holly Hill. Police were able to speak with the man, and while he initially denied any knowledge or in volvement in the burglary, he later admitted to the thefts. The man had also written the

building owner’s personal identification information, including his social security number and drivers license number, in a notebook. He also had a blank check be longing to the building owner.

OCT. 18

THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING CHRYSLER 2:09 p.m. — 5900 block State Road Highway 100, Palm Coast Stolen vehicle. A 2021 Chrys ler 300S was stolen from the Flagler Chrysler dealership on State Road 100, before they even knew it had arrived. According to the incident report, the vehicle was sup posed to be delivered on Oct. 5, and when it didn’t arrive, the dealership contacted the delivery driver, who said the car had been delivered and signed for, with a signature no one recognized at Flagler Chrysler — the report does not mention what date they contacted the driver, or why it took 13 days to check and re port the car missing. The car was recovered the next day in Jacksonville by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, according to a follow-up re port. The car delivery compa ny, based out of Jacksonville, could not be reached by the responding officer. According to the follow-up report, the car was returned to Flagler Chrysler, which is not press ing charges at this time.

could get benefits like these:

$10 specialist copay

Up

$1,080

$90

in

Qualifying Individuals (QI), Qualified Disabled and Working Individuals (QDWI) and other Full Benefit Dual Eligibles (FBDE). Sponsored by CarePlus Health Plans, Inc. and the State of Florida, Agency for Health Care Administration. CareComplete Platinum (C-SNP): This plan is available to anyone enrolled in Medicare with a diagnosis of diabetes, cardiovascular disorders or chronic heart failure. CareBreeze Platinum (C-SNP): This plan is available to anyone enrolled in Medicare with a diagnosis of chronic lung disorders. No amounts on the CareEssentials Card can be used to purchase Medicare-covered prescriptions or services, nor can it be converted to cash. Referrals and/or authorization may be required for certain specialists. Important: At CarePlus, it is important you are treated fairly. CarePlus Health Plans, Inc. complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, age, marital status, religion, or language in their programs and activities, including in admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, their programs and activities. The following department has been designated to handle inquiries regarding CarePlus’ non-discrimination policies: Member Services, PO Box 277810, Miramar, FL 33027, 1-800-794-5907 (TTY: 711). Auxiliary aids and services, free of charge, are available to you. 1-800-794-5907 (TTY: 711). CarePlus provides free auxiliary aids and services, such as qualified sign language interpreters, video remote interpretation, and written information in other formats to people with disabilities when such auxiliary aids and services are necessary to ensure an equal opportunity to participate. This information is available for free in other languages. Please call our Member Services number at 1-800794-5907. Hours of operation: October 1 – March 31, 7 days a week, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 1 – September 30, Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. You may leave a voicemail after hours, Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays and we will return your call within one business day. Español (Spanish): Esta información está disponible de forma gratuita en otros idiomas. Favor de llamar

Challenges filed for 20 books in Flagler

Most came from leaders of the Flagler chapter of the Moms for Liberty.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Twenty books on school library shelves in Flagler County have been challenged between Oct. 6 and Oct. 19, according to a school district document.

Four individuals have requested books be removed from the shelves. Three of the individuals are listed on the Flagler County Chapter of Moms for Liberty website as part of the chapter’s leadership team. Chapter Chair Shannon Rambow is among the individuals challenging the books.

The reasons cited for the challeng es included explicit sexual descrip tions, references teenage pregnancy, sexual assault and child molestation, excessive violence and profanity, sensationalizing illegal drug use and underage drinking, racism and “ref erences to alternate genders.”

All of the challenges include page numbers, and in many cases cita tions, of the material.

Rambow; Terri McDonald, the chapter’s School Board coordinator; and Christine Glancy, the chapter’s secretary; were among the four chal lengers. They did not return phone calls or emails from the Observer seeking comment.

Many of the challenges did not include names of authors or publish ers. A few of the books could not be found on Flagler Schools’ web-based media catalog or were not listed at the school the challenge cited.

Most of the challenges were for books on library shelves at Matanzas High School and Flagler Palm Coast High School. “The Upside of Unre quited,” by Becky Albertalli, was challenged for Buddy Taylor Middle School and FPC, but was not listed in the Buddy Taylor catalog.

“Tilt,” by Ellen Hopkins was chal lenged for both high schools, but was listed only in FPC’s catalog. “Push,” by Sapphire, was not listed for either

high school in which it was chal lenged. “Crank,” by Hopkins, was challenged for Matanzas and Indian Trails Middle School but was listed only in the Matanzas catalog. “A Court of Mist & Fury” and “Dreaming in Cuban” were challenged for FPC but not listed in the school’s catalog.

“Lucky,” a memoir by Alice Sebold, describing her brutal sexual assault, is not listed in either high school’s catalog. Scribner stopped publish ing and distributing the 1999 book after the person convicted of the crime was exonerated after serving 16 years in prison.

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,” by Sherman Alex ie, was challenged for Indian Trails Middle School and FPC, but is not listed in FPC’s catalog. “L8R G8R,” by Lauren Myracle, was challenged for Indian Trails but is not listed in the school’s catalog.

“Sold,” a novel by Patricia McCor mick, is a fictional story about a young girl from Nepal who is sold into sexual slavery, told from the girl’s point of view. The book, which is in the libraries at Matanzas and FPC, was challenged for containing “explicit aberrant sexual activities including rape of a minor; prostitu tion; and explicit violence.”

On her website, McCormick said she interviewed girls who have been rescued from the sex trade to research her book.

All of the challenges were for library books only, not instructional materials. Books were challenged for individual schools. The district’s challenge document was generated as a result of new state requirements for media center and instructional material challenges, School Board Attorney Kristy Gavin said.

Each challenge will be reviewed by the individual school’s media spe cialist, she said. If the media spe cialist decides the book meets crite ria to remain on the shelf, it will be reviewed by the school’s full media center committee.

If the committee decides the book meets guidelines, the challenge can be elevated to the district level, Gavin said. A district media review com

BOOKS THAT HAVE BEEN CHALLENGED

1. “Sold,” Patricia McCormick

2. “The upside of Unrequited,” Becky Albertalli

3. “Lucky,” Alice Seybold

4. “Push,” Sapphire

5. “Tilt,” Ellen Hopkins

6. “Crank,” Ellen Hopkins

7. “Thirteen Reasons Why,” Jay Asher

8. “The Truth About Alice,” Jen nifer Mathieu

9. “The Nowhere Girls,” Amy Lynn Reed

10. “Last Night at the Telegraph Club,” Malinda Lo

11. “The Black Flamingo,” Dean Atta

12. “Breathless,” Jennifer Niven 13. “A Court of Mist & Fury,” Sarah J. Maas

14. “Damsel,” Elana K. Arnold

15. “The Haters,” Jesse Andrews

16. “What Girls Are Made of,” Elan K. Arnold

17. “Dreaming in Cuban,” Chris tina Garcia

18. “Me & Earl and the Dying Girl,” Jesse Andrews

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,” Sherman Alexie

“LG8R G8R,” Lauren Myracle

mittee would review the book. If the committee decides to keep the book on the shelves, the challenger would have 30 days to make a written appeal to Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt.

If Mittelstadt does not overturn the committee’s decision, the challenger would have 10 days to make an appeal to the School Board, Gavin said.

School Board member Jill Wool bright’s challenge went through the process on the district level last year. Mittelstadt overturned the commit tee’s recommendation to return “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” to school librar ies. The district has added a pro cess where parents can block library books for their own children.

Volusia County Schools reports 204 separations so far this year

Meanwhile, 655 teachers are part of the district’s Teacher Induction Program, an increase over previous years.

JARLEENE ALMENAS SENIOR EDITOR

Instructional vacancies at Volusia County Schools total 187, up from 182 in late September. Support vacancies total 243. So far this year, there have been 204 separations in the district.

At the same time, the district has added 655 new teachers as of Oct. 18, based on data from its Teacher Induction Program.

“Our front door is working really well,” Ruben Colon, the Volusia County School Board chair, said at a board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25. “Our back door is pretty open.”  District human resources staff members showed board members the latest vacancy data.

When board members asked for more details, Chief Human Resourc es Officer Mark West said that “per sonal reasons” had been the most frequent reason for separation — cited 131 times. He showed them the 10 schools or departments with the highest turnover, Hinson Middle School and the dis trict’s Information Technology Ser vices department were the top two, with 11 and 9 separations, respec tively. Campbell Middle School and Deltona High School tied for third, with seven separations.

In addition, 105 people are taking a leave of absence as of Oct. 18.

All in all, West said, the district has had a little over 300 people “that have basically walked out the door.”

“It’s a difficult time, we recognize, with teachers and with employees right now with what we have, and I think we’re seeing an upswing with our increases in our hourly wages for our support employees, particularly,

with minimum wages going up, but we want to continue to work on our retention,” West said.

He did highlight that 655 teachers are participating in the district’s TIP program — double the number seen in past years.

The pop-up job fairs VCS held this fall led to the hiring of 62 people — 15 teachers and 47 support personnel.

“Our goal is to continue trying to do these job fairs as frequently as we can,” Human Resources Direc tor Stephanie Workman said. “As we move into the month of November and December, our focus is going to be on trying to get those college graduates that are coming in.”

Colon asked if the district had considered moving teachers who are at risk of separating into another school or position to see if the teach er could be retained. West said the district has taken steps to do that.  School Board member Linda Cuthbert said that she would love to see more mentoring at the campus level, perhaps from retired teachers who could volunteer to support new teachers.

“The new ones just need some body to talk to that they can con fide in,” Cuthbert said. “And I know they’re probably scared to death to talk to their administrators, but a coworker would be wonderful.”

Fixing the salary compression should also to help fix the vacancy problem, School Board member Jamie Haynes said.

“I understand we want to take care of everybody, but each year there’s only so much money to take care of everyone,” Haynes said. “And I’m just going to state it again tonight: We want to help shut that back door and stop losing people, then we have to come up with a plan to address the problem that we’ve had for three years with instructional because of the compression piece, and because how we’ve pushed them and because we have not done our due diligence for what we can do for our experi enced teachers.”

FCSO, USF release images of victim found at Toscana

Study of remains reveals man was African-American or mixed-race and between the ages of 35 and 50.

OBSERVER STAFF

The body found at a Toscana con struction site in July was that of a 30-50-year-old African-American or mixed-race man, investigators have discovered.

A University of South Florida anthropology team under the direc tor of Erin Kimmerle, working on the case alongside the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office’s Cold Case Unit, has released two computer-generat ed images of the victim’s face — one with facial hair and one without.

Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact the

Sheriff’s Office, according to an FCSO news relese.

They have not determined a cause of death or ruled out foul play and do not know exactly when the man died. But they have determined that the man does not match any missing persons who have been reported to the FCSO.

“We knew that it was going to take some time to identify this man,” Fla gler County Sheriff Rick Staly said. “We are now one step closer, with a lot of work still to be done. These kinds of cases take time to solve, especially considering how the remains were found. Our Cold Case detectives and Dr. Kimmerle’s team have done terrific work getting us to this point. We’re hoping someone recognizes these images as someone they may know.”

Investigators are creating a DNA profile to compare with DNA profiles

in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) database.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Flagler County Sher iff’s Office at 386-313-4911 or Crime

Stoppers at 888-277-TIPS (8477).

Emails can also be submitted to Tips@FlaglerSheriff.com.

TechFest introduces students to technology careers

Twenty-one students received invitations to Full Sail University’s statewide esports competition.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Full Sail University and Flagler Palm Coast’s DECA club hosted a full-day TechFest at FPC on Oct. 19.

Corinne Schaefer, FPC’s career and technical education department chair, said that in each of seven peri ods, about 150 to 200 students from the school’s career and technical classes participated in the interac tive technology festival.

The event had 10 stations to intro duce students to emerging technol ogy careers in: 3D animation and modeling; augmented and virtual reality simulation; cloud-based and mobile applications; esports (broad casting, production and develop ment/design components); robotics and video game programming; and research and development.

There was also an esports minitournament in which eight students in each period competed in Super Smash Bros. The top three players in each period were invited to compete in the Super Smash Bros. Invitation

Three FPC sophomores traveled to New York City to compete in the National Youth Entrepreneur ship Challenge on Oct. 12-14. Ro man Savko, Darian Miroshnik and Leon Grigoruk advanced to the national competition, sponsored by NFTE (the Network For Teach ing Entrepreneurship).

The three students pitched their idea for a tutoring business

al at Full Sail University’s Orlando Health Fortress on Nov. 12.

The FPC students who qualified for the statewide high school competi tion were: Aidan Colon, Jillian Rive ra, Anthony Debisceglie, Jasmine Rodriguez, Damari Jackson, Antalya Rodriguez, Xavier Gospodarec, Ben Cazzaniga, David Purdy, Aiden Rae

IN NYC

called Peers, by students and for students. Forty students repre senting 32 businesses competed in the Shark Tank-like competi tion. Only three competitors were selected for the final round.

The three FPC students got a chance to network with business executives, Corinne Schaefer, their entrepreneurship teacher, said.

gan, Hansell Bruce, Michael Smith, Fletcher Carroll, Dylan Worbey, Leo Delgado, Barak Olago, Bobby Bran ton, Zachary Soares, David Krol, Albert Davis and Cameron Stevens.

Full Sail will award scholarships to the top three competitors at the invitational.

Man serving life sentence accused of killing woman in 1991

But on Monday, Oct. 24, a Volusia County grand jury handed down an indictment for a suspect in the case: Michael Townson, who is serving a life sentence in Brevard County for beating a woman, Sherri Carmanto, to death with a steel pipe in Titusville.

“It is extremely gratifying to solve a 31-year-old murder,” said State At torney R.J. Larizza in a news release. “I hope it brings some measure of peace to the victim’s family.”

Linda Little’s friend had reported her as missing on Oct. 14, 1991. Little had last been seen on Oct. 11, 1991. She was 43 when she went missing.

Fire Rescue deploys to Fort Myers Beach

Flagler County Fire Rescue on Oct. 20 deployed as part of a “Strike Team” three firefighter-paramedics and two lieutenants to staff a Fort Myers Beach firehouse for 10 days.

Lt. Karl Froling, Lt. Tony Guerin, Ruben Zauzau, Beau Kruithoff and Prince Mack headed out just as Su zanne Eubanks, Fire Rescue’s office manager and logistics specialist, returned after a two-week Sanibel Island support mission.

Battalion Chief Cody King, Com munity Paramedic Rob Errett, and firefighter-paramedics Justin McDonald, Ron Titus, and Adam VanDeusen have since deployed to relieve Froling, Guerin, Zuazua, Kruithoff and Mack.

Photos courtesy of FCSO

Computer generated images of the man whose remains were found at the Toscana development.

For decades, Daytona Beach resi dent Linda Little’s disappearance remained unsolved.

Courtesy photo Antalya Rodriguez faces off against Kayden Alvarez.

Photo courtesy of DBPD

Linda Lois Little

PALM COAST

Renew half-cent sales tax to support local students

The half-cent tax funds technology that enhances students’ educations, an FPC senior writes.

public school system I have spent so many years in, it is disheartening to think that the students prepar ing to join it may not enjoy the same opportunities I did.

While none of us like the idea of paying more in taxes, it is important to understand a few things about the half-cent tax renewal that make it a no-brainer for voters:



The half-penny sales tax is not a new tax. In fact, it’s been in place since 2002.



STUDENT

As a proud Flagler Palm Coast High School senior who has grown up in the Flagler County School Dis trict as a Rymfire Roadrunner and then as a Indian Trails Mustang, I have been fortunate to enjoy edu cational opportunities that other students outside Flagler simply do not.

Modern technology and innova tive facilities enhanced my edu cation, without a doubt. These include:



A personal school MacBook/ iPad that provided an intuitive platform in which to complete coursework collaboratively and communicate almost instanta neously with instructors



Apple TVs that allowed me and my classmates to take the place of the teacher by presenting to the class, developing critical profes sional soft skills in the process



A cooperative learning space that fostered movement and inter action between students



Makerspaces filled with advanced technology such as 3D printers, which encouraged me and my classmates to adopt a STEM mindset as well as creativity in our applications of mathematics and science



Strong security systems that made me feel safe while learning.

All of these things are only pos sible because of the half-penny sales tax, which is up for renewal on Nov. 8. Voters will decide if Flagler Schools will continue to have up to eight million dollars more in fund ing each year, leaving thousands of student educations in the balance.

As I prepare to graduate from the

Money raised from the halfpenny sales tax stays exclusively in Flagler County, directly benefiting our schools and the students who attend them everyday.



Despite being projected to raise an enormous $80 million dollars for the school district over the next 10 years, the cost of the tax on tax payers is only a dime on every $20 purchase.

Although money raised from the half-cent sales tax funds resources for the entire student population, it also accommodates students who are in need. The Flagler County School District is one of few that provides a hot-spot box for stu dents who cannot afford internet access or live in areas without it.

This tangible step resulting from the half-cent sales tax contributes towards closing the achievement gap.

Furthermore, thanks to the vast digital infrastructure network cre ated after years of funding from the half-cent sales tax, Flagler County is in a much better position to weather pandemics and natural disasters.

Without any significant delays during the 2020 COVID-19 pan demic, the digital educational capacity of the district facilitated students learning from home from day one. In other words, the halfcent sales tax strengthens the resil iency of our school district as well as the community it serves.

When it comes to this issue, we must ask ourselves a question. Are students, the future of our com munity, worth more than half of a cent? In my opinion, they are. Please vote “Yes” for the continu ation of a one-half-cent tax on Nov. 8.

Half-cent-funded programs prepare students for careers

The renewal of the halfpenny tax is on the ballot this Nov. 8.

right here in our own county and benefits our students and com munity.

“If we are to build a better world, we must remember that the guiding principle is this — a policy of freedom for the individual is the only truly progressive policy.”

Friedrich Hayek

“Road to Serfdom,” 1944

Publisher John Walsh, jwalsh@palmcoastobserver.com

Associate Publisher Maureen Walsh, maureen@palmcoastobserver.com

Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons, jonathan@palmcoastobserver.com

AT CRT/PALM COAST

The City Repertory Theatre, 160 Cypress Point

Suite B207,

“Charley’s

British farce has been

it

at the Royalty

1892.

London

comedy

years later.

Dec.

Danno Waddell and Cameron Hodges play college friends Jack

The Palm Coast Rowing Club held a “Paddle in Pink” row on Oct. 22, drawing about 25 participants and raising just under $1,000 for the AdventHealth Foundation.

“This was our first pink row, and we hope to make it an annual event in order to raise breast cancer awareness,” Palm Coast Rowing Club Secretary/Membership Commit tee Chair Alaine Donovan said in an

and Charley who are in desperate need of a chaperone, so they enlist the aid of a roommate, Lord Fan court “Babbs” Babberley (played by Beau Wade), who dresses up as Charley’s Aunt from Brazil.

Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for students. The Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m., while Sunday’s matinees begin at 3 p.m.

You can order tickets at crtpalm coast.com or call the box office at 386-585-9415.

Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Flagler Palm Coast High School on a tour for its Classroomto-Careers program. I was truly impressed to see all the wonderful opportunities our children have today right here in our county.

These programs are made pos sible thanks to our half-cent sales tax, which will be on the ballot this November. The half-cent renewal is not a new tax and will continue to allow us to increase technology, safety and security, and prepare our students to join the workforce.

A few positives that I would like to highlight are that 100% of the funds stay right here in our own county and support Flagler stu dents. While our tax dollars may be used for many things, we can know that this small contribution stays

LETTERS

Local candidates should address climate change and abortion. Here’s why.

Dear Editor:

As I stated in my letter before the primary, I am not a fan of endorse ments. An endorsement is one person, or one group’s, viewpoint on the issue or candidates.

Here, Observer Publisher John Walsh’s candidate endorsements may not be based on the same reasons as many readers of the Observer. If voters are satisfied with his reasons, they may choose his endorsements, or not.

Voters should select their candi dates based on all the information they can gather. Candidate ads are a poor source for voter information.

Walsh states the Chamber of Commerce estimates a future popu lation of 160,000 residents in seven years. But knowing the chamber has a stake in keeping things busy for its clients and supporters, one still cannot hold this as anything other than a crystal ball guess.

However, this fits neatly in line with Palm Coast City Council and city staff’s big plans to open vast new areas of the west side of U.S. 1 in Palm Coast for development. Many here feel the city should shore up the current Palm Coast before starting out on any new endeavors.

However, more critical issues which are local, state, and national

Another great positive is that through our Classroom-toCareers program, our young people can graduate high school ready to join the workforce right here in our own community. It also gives them the opportunity to see how they might want to further their careers in the future. For example, through the firefighter/medical program, students have the opportunity to learn medical skills that could lead them into future careers of nursing, pre-med, or many other avenues in the medical field.

But what if you don’t have children in school? How does this benefit you? Maintaining qual ity schools means living in a safe community and increased property values. It also allows us to prepare and meet the needs of the future with graduates who are ready to enter the workforce and serve Fla gler County.

I’m thankful to live in a commu nity with such a wonderful quality of life, with many opportunities for our children and the future of Fla gler County. I hope you will join me in this commitment to improve our schools and our whole community, and vote to renew the half-cent sales tax this Nov. 8.

Senior Editor Jarleene Almenas, jarleene@ormondbeachobserver.com

Associate Editor Brent Woronoff, brent@palmcoastobserver.com

Staff Writer Sierra Williams, sierra@palmcoastobserver.com

Design Editor Hailey McMillan, hailey@palmcoastobserver.com

Media Director Holly Oliveri, holly@ormondbeachobserver.com

Senior Media Specialist Susan Moore, susan@palmcoastobserver.com

Advertising Coordinator Jessica Boone, jessica@palmcoastobserver.com Engagement Specialist Rayna Dunlop, rayna@palmcoastobserver.com

Office Coordinator Bonnie Hamilton, bonnie@palmcoastobserver.com

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in nature should be taken into con sideration when selecting candi dates.

The divisive and troubling issues of climate change and abortion need to be addressed by all local candi dates. Here is why. Every year, the Flagler County commissioners and Bunnell, Palm Coast, Flagler Beach, and other city councils meet with Florida state legislators in Tallahas see to share ideas and wishes on upcoming legislation.

At the order of Gov. Ron [DeSan tis], the state may pass a law with a total ban on abortions in Florida, no exceptions. The state folks get their information from, besides special interests, our groups, our commis sioners, and council people. The same holds true for climate change. Neither of these issues have been addressed by anybody at our level. It is dangerous for them, but it is important for us.

JEFFERY C. SEIB Palm Coast

CORRECTION

The political forum story on page 14A of the Oct. 20 edition incorrectly identified the location candidate Jane Gentile-Youd moved to in 2002. She moved to unincorporated Flagler County, not to Palm Coast.

VETERAN OF THE WEEK

email to the Observer

AdventHealth Foundation Direc tor John Subers was at the boat launch at the Palm Harbor Golf Club to see the rowers off.

Participants, wearing pink and rowing shells adorned with pink bal loons, rowed from the Palm Harbor Golf Club to Bings Landing and back,

said.

Branch of military: U.S. Army

Dates of service: 1961-1962 (Re serve 1962-1967)

Rank/occupation: Private First Class/Ordnance Supply Specialist

Hometown: Landing, New Jersey

Vincent Cautero was a talented baseball player, and at age 17 was pursued by scouts as a prospect for the Yankees. Although it didn’t work out, he did play semi-pro baseball, and later was on a traveling U.S. Army team out of Fort Benning. He also at tended the Morrison Music School in Manhattan. However, the Army made him as a carbine sharpshooter and trained him in counter-insurgency, emergency medicine and amphibi ous warfare. Upon his honorable discharge, Cautero worked for the Army as a civilian draftsman. He lived in South Florida, then moved to Palm Coast with his wife, Carolyn, in 2004. They recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. You may recog nize Cautero from performances at European Village or other venues. He covers songs sung by the greats, like Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, as well as Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” which he sings at Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies.

NEED HELP WITH VETERAN SERVICES?

For information about support orga nizations and benefits available to veterans, call 386-313-4014.

Cautero

CAMERON DRIGGERS

CHRISTY CHONG SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER-ELECT

Paddle in Pink participants

Courtesy photo

Observer recommends

REPUBLICANS GROW; DEMOCRATS DON’T

VOTER REGISTRATION

Unlike then, this year’s three amendments are all courtesy of the Legislature. And thankfully, each of the amendments is limited to a single subject, making them easier to comprehend.

What’s more, unlike many citizen-initiated amendments, this year’s three amendments do not have nefarious interest groups working behind the scenes to pass or kill the amendments to gain spe cial advantage.

FLORIDA

5,233,366 36.3% +2.2%

4,963,722 34.5% -2.9%

4,198,193 29.2% +3.2%

14,395,281 100% +0.6%

FLAGLER COUNTY Republican 42,979 45.2% +6.6% Democrat 26,262 27.6% 3.0% Other 25,786 27.1% +5.2%

Total 95,027 100% +3.4%

AMENDMENT

MATT WALSH

Every conversation you have with a Floridian for the first time since that horrible, fateful day always begins with: “How did you do? Is your family OK? Was your home dam aged?”

And for the next five minutes or so, together you lament the destruction that Hurricane Ian inflicted on this great state, and you pity with your heart the thousands of Floridians who lost so much.

All of us in Ian’s wake are still traumatized — PTSD, for sure — even if those of us in the SarasotaBradenton escaped as we did.

So it’s hard to shift your mindset and focus and get back to living the way we were living before Ian.

But we must — and will.

Which brings us to one of the next milestones Americans will be facing over the next few weeks: How to vote in the Nov. 8 general election.

To that end, as we do with each election, we will attempt over the next few weeks to help readers see why some incumbents deserve reelection or not, or why some chal lengers deserve election instead.

We will explain some of the details, backgrounds, motivations, objec tives and plusses and minuses of the state constitutional amendments and local charter amendments.

And, as we have done tradition ally, we will continue to make rec ommendations — a practice most newspapers are abandoning. Too bad they are.

We continue to believe it’s worth while to offer a viewpoint that may help voters think more analytically about candidates and issues than making judgments merely based on TV and radio soundbites or on the negative campaign mailers stuffed into mailboxes.

In this week’s installment, we address the state constitutional amendments. And as we do with every proposed amendment, we will apply our litmus test: If passed, will the amendment increase or decrease individuals’ freedom? If it will increase freedom, we’ll likely recommend a yes. If it decreases freedom, no.

CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS

Thankfully, there are only three state constitutional amendments on the ballot this year. That’s a welcome relief from four years ago, when there were 12 state amend ments on the ballot — all of which addressed multiple subjects that completely confused voters.

On top of that in 2018, Sarasota County ballots contained another six bond and charter questions.

All of it was overwhelming and for Florida voters.

That seemingly interminable and confusing list of amendments came to Floridians courtesy of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, an appointed body of citizens that meets every 20 years and whose existence happens to be the subject of one of this year’s amendments.

Instead, you can say the intent of the amendments is to improve the lives of those the amendments are intended to affect. But you can be the judge of that once you know more about them.

AMENDMENT 1

Limitation on the assessment of real property used for residential purposes.

To authorize the Legislature, by general law, to prohibit the consid eration of any change or improve ment made to real property used for residential purposes to improve the property’s resistance to flood damage in determining the assessed value of such property for ad valorem taxation purposes.

In plain English, here’s what this means: If you own residential property in Florida and construct or install improvements designed to keep your property from being flooded (e.g. hurricanes, storms), county property appraisers cannot add the value of those improve ments to the assessed value of your property.

Say the appraiser values your canal-front home at $700,000. Then you add $50,000 worth of anti-flood improvements. When the appraiser assesses the tax value of your home, he cannot include the $50,000 value.

State statutes already apply that methodology to wind damage improvements (stronger roofs, hur ricane windows, etc.). This amend ment would apply the same exemp tion to flood improvements.

In the wake of Ian, most people would say this amendment makes sense. This amendment is in every property owner and taxpayer’s interest and in the interest of help ing the state create a more favorable insurance market.

It makes sense to give homeown ers an incentive to take steps to avoid flood damage. Likewise, any measure that limits or reduces taxa tion is an increase in freedom.

We recommend: Yes

AMENDMENT 2

Abolishing the Constitution Revision Commission.

To abolish the Constitution Revi sion Commission, which meets at 20-year intervals and is scheduled to next convene in 2037, as a method of submitting proposed amendments or revisions to the State Constitu tion to electors of the state for approval. This amendment does not affect the ability to revise or amend the State Constitution through citizen initiative, constitutional convention, the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission or legislative joint resolution.

On first thought, an initial reaction to reading this proposed amendment would be to vote no. It appears the Legislature wants to eliminate one of the avenues vot ers and taxpayers have to change state government. It appears to be an effort to take away some of your freedom and your ability to control your government.

VOLUSIA COUNTY Republican 158,854 38.6% +2.9% Democrat 125,621 30.5% -4.9% Other 127,028 30.9% +1.5%

Total 411,503 100% 0%

of 9.30.22.)

For the first time in Florida politi cal history, registered Republi cans will outnumber registered Democrats going into the general election.

This was a long quest for Re publicans.

Even though Republicans achieved a historic milestone in 1996 by taking the majority in the Legislature — the first time in 120 years — Democrats have always

outnumbered Republicans. No longer. What’s more, when you look at a county map of Florida, it would show the state to be bright Red. Of the 67 counties, Republicans outnumber Democrats in 52.

Offsetting that dominance, however, is that Democrats over whelmingly control the state’s major metropolitan areas.

DEMOCRATS DOMINATE THE METROS

The table shows the total registered Democrats and Republicans and the percentage of the total number of registered voters.

Democrats % Republicans % Broward 596,774 47.9% 263,491 21.1% Duval (Jax) 260,733 40.0% 228,883 35.1%

Hillsborough 341,597 37.2% 287,419 31.3% Miami-Dade 575,793 37.9% 433,113 28.5%

Orange 360,389 41.7% 217,061 25.1% Palm Beach 398,703 39.9% 288,547 28.9%

2,533,989 1,718,51

32.8%

Source: Florida Secretary of State; supervisors of elections

But as with most issues, there are two sides to every story.

Florida Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, makes a persuasive case for eliminating the commission — persuasive enough that more than three-fifths of the Legislature voted in 2021 to put this measure on the ballot.

Brandes likens the commission to the movie “Jumanji” — a game with no rules.

“There are no rules,” he says. “Good things can pop out, and bad things can pop out.”

All of that is true of the revision commission, in particular the part about no rules.

When Florida voters approved the creation of the commission in 1968, the provisions specifying its job and how to do that job were vague and open-ended. According to a leg islative analysis in 2021, all that is required of the commission is that it “must convene at the call of its chair, adopt rules of procedure and ‘hold public hearings.’” That’s it.

Its job is “to examine the State Constitution and decide which, if any, amendments to propose to the voters.”

Brandes argues the open-ended nature of the commission results in what occurred in 2018 — a dozen amendments, most of them addressing different subjects; and many of them items that should not be in the constitution, but rather dealt with as state statutes.

What’s more, Brandes argues, the members of the commission are not really a wide cross-section of Flor ida’s populace. Of its 37 members, the governor appoints 15; the House speaker and Senate president each appoint nine; the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court appoints three; and the attorney general is a

member.

The result tends to be friends and donors of the state’s elected leaders.

In the most recent commission, Republicans overwhelmingly domi nated. “It’s a construct of unelected individuals,” Brandes says, deciding what to present to voters to change Florida’s most sacred, governing document.

For all those reasons, Brandes says, the best way to fix all that is wrong with the commission is to eliminate it.

Or, as Adrian Moore, Observer columnist and vice president of the Reason Foundation, wrote in a Sept. 8 column: “It would make much more sense to reform the CRC and the citizen initiative process than to eliminate it.”

Moore presented five do-able and reasonable steps that would reform and fix the commission and preserve this avenue to amending Florida’s Constitution. It’s worth a try.

We recommend: No.

Additional homestead property tax exemption for specified critical public services workforce. To authorize the Legislature, by general law, to grant an additional homestead tax exemption for nonschool levies of up to $50,000 of the assessed value of homestead property owned by classroom teachers, law enforcement officers, correctional officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians, paramedics, child welfare services professionals, active duty members of the United States armed forces and Florida National Guard mem bers. This amendment shall take effect Jan. 1, 2023.

This proposed amendment reeks of political pandering.

It also is rife with reasons to be critical of the 115 Florida House members (all of them at the time) and the 37 out of 38 senators who voted to put this measure on the ballot in the most recent legislative session.

First, to the good: If approved, the amendment would codify a property tax cut — and thus more individual freedom — for nine groups of Floridians. It would be a nice way to express the public’s perpetual appreciation for these indispensable and highly valued public servants; to let them know Floridians have their backs.

It would not be a precedent by any means.

Since 2010, Florida voters have approved six constitutional amend ments giving property-tax exemp tions and college tuition waivers to combat-wounded military veterans, disabled first respond ers and the surviving spouses of these deceased veterans and first responders. In the process, Florida has become one of the most wel coming states in the country for veterans and first responders.

Now, state lawmakers want to broaden that net.

But wait. While we admire and respect the people who choose to serve in those crucial occupa tions and understand their risks and challenges, and while we have supported the six previous amend ments intended to help those wounded, disabled or killed in the line of duty, this amendment smacks of the policy making that lawmakers should always avoid: picking one group over another and bestowing benefits on one group at the expense of others.

This amendment is the classic example of the Milton Friedman rule of lawmaking: What you give to one you must take away from another. If you lower taxes for the people in these nine groups, others must make up the difference.

Florida lawmakers should quit pandering so they can say they voted to cut taxes. If there are to be tax cuts, give them to everyone.

We recommend: No.

Local teacher opens ice cream shop

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

Joining Palm Coast’s evergrowing restaurant scene is a sweet treat for the whole fam ily: homemade ice cream.

Sweet Melissa’s Homemade Ice Cream, to be precise.

The small family-owned shop is located at 160 Cypress Point Parkway in City Market Place. Melissa Herndon, the face behind the name, owns the store with her husband, Wilson.

“We have been blessed by our community,” Melissa Herndon said. “They have come out and supported us like crazy.”

Melissa Herndon balances the shop with her job as a teacher at Imagine School at Town Center. Herndon teaches seventh grade math there. One would think teaching full-time is enough, but Herndon said when she and her husband discovered how it easy and fun it was to make homemade ice cream, things just started snapping into place.

The whole endeavor began because of Wilson, she said. He’s retired, but not ready to sit idle. The two of them signed up for a class on mak ing homemade ice cream and realized how much they enjoyed it.

Learning food safety requirements and getting those certifications was the hardest part, Melissa Hern don said. She’s never worked in food service, so the whole process is new.

— WILSON HERNDON

The two of them create their own recipes. But Melis sa Herndon is the barometer, Wilson Herndon said: she gets the final say on what’s good or not.

They’ve got the classics, of course; but they also have unique recipes like Georgia peach cobbler, turtle cheese cake and apple pie. Their piethemed ones, including their seasonal pumpkin pie ice cream, for example, actually include whole pies blended into the ice cream. Aside from scoop ice cream, they also offer milkshakes and malts and a variety of sundaes.

Wilson Herndon said he’s also working on some health ier options, so everyone can have something to enjoy no matter their dietary restric tions. The couple’s menu cur

rently offers three different “ices”: blueberry lemonade, strawberry limeade and apple cider.

The best part, Wilson Herndon said, is that the shop is the kind of place where peo ple come and visit with each other and with the Herndons.

It’s been two months since they opened at the end of August, and already they have people who have come in mul tiple times, he said.

“We have developed a shop that is, you know, it’s fam ily friendly,” he said. “People just come here and they’re comfortable.”

Sweet Melissa’s hasn’t had a grand opening yet. Though the shop soft-opened almost two months ago, Melissa Herndon said the couple has been using the time to work out the kinks.

“Everything has just been a whirlwind and we haven’t had a chance to have that true grand opening,” she said.

The store is open 1-9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Melissa Herndon and her husband, Wilson, serve up classic flavors and new creations at Sweet Melissa’s Homemade Ice Cream.

"We have developed a shop that is, you know, it’s family friendly. People just come here and they’re comfortable."

Photo by Sierra Williams

Melissa Herndon prepares a bowl of ice cream for a customer at her new shop, Sweet Melissa’s Homemade Ice Cream.

Flip Flop Shops

Ormond Beach opens

Flip Flop Shops Ormond Beach has opened and is inviting the public to a grand opening from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19.

The shop, at 177 E. Granada Blvd., in the Granada Plaza, is owned by David Knapp and Ryan Kurtz.

The grand opening will have special product promotions and giveaways, with six large prize raffles, according to a news release. Attendees will also have a chance to win a 2022 Body Glove perfor mance paddleboard.

“As native Floridians, we embrace the Florida lifestyle,” said co-owner David Knapp. “This store is designed with a laid-back vibe, and our customers so far have loved it. We treasure our custom ers and strive to offer our southern hospitality, quality products, and exceptional customer service,” added David.

David, an internal medicine physician, recently closed his practice of 35 years to spend more time with his wife, Jan ice, and his stepson Ryan; The trio decided to open Flip Flops Shops.

Flip Flop Shops Ormond Beach carries a full line

of flip-flops, water shoes, sunglasses, beach hats, bags, SPF shirts, accessories, and more.

The shop is open from 10 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thurs day; from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays; and 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.

Mosquito Control District to expand coverage area

Flagler County is working with the East Flagler Mosquito Control District to expand the coverage area for mosquito control services.

A final recommendation will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners at its Nov. 21 meeting.

Additional mosquito control services, if approved, will begin in some southern and western areas of Flagler County including: nSouth: the area east of U.S. 1 from north of Korona, as well as south and east to the Volusia County line, an area that includes the Flagler County portions of Planta tion Reserve, Plantation Bay, Fleetwood Terrace, Eagle Rock Ranch, and Ormond Manor.

nWest: U.S. 1 to (and inclu sive of) the Florida East Coast Railway from County Road 13 north to the St. Johns County line, an area that includes the

Palm Lakes Entertainment & Industrial Park area, Atlantis industrial/commercial area, Otis Stone Hunter Road industrial/commercial area, Town & Country Business Park, Reverie, Somerset, Palm Coast Park, Sawmill Creek subdivision, and Dixie High way Park.

For more information, go to www.FlaglerMosquito.com.

Daytona State awarded $2.8 million grant

Daytona State College is among three state colleges awarded millions of dollars in state grant money.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Oct. 25 said the state had awarded $9 million to support work force education programs, with a focus on professions and Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian, according to a news release from the gover nor’s office.

Daytona State College is receiving $2.8 million to support workforce education programs, while South Florida State College will receive $2.8 million and St. Peters burg College will receive $3.4 million to support workforce education programs and to oversee the initiative.

These money will support programs in emergency man agement, law enforcement, health care and education. Approximately 2,000 stu dents are expected to gradu ate from the programs over the next three years.

“It was great to award $9 million for workforce educa tion programs that will help Floridians who were impacted by Hurricane Ian,” DeSan tis said. “As we rebuild and recover from this storm, training highly skilled indi viduals to work in health care, law enforcement, emergency management and education will help communities now and prepare them for the future.”

Courtesy photo

Ryan Kurtz, Janice Knapp and David Knapp

Teens-In-Flight opens new facility at Flagler Executive Airport

The new location has offices and space for the nonprofit’s aircraft.

DANNY BROADHURST

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Teens-In-Flight, a local nonprofit that helps teenagers earn a pri vate pilot’s license, opened a new headquarters Oct. 22 at the Flagler Executive Airport in Palm Coast.

The new location includes four offices and allows the organization to house its airplanes in its own hangar.

Jack Howell, the nonprofit’s founder and a retired U.S. Marine colonel and former Palm Coast city councilman, welcomed the public to the opening.

“The Teens-In-Flight flight pro gram teaches everyone how to fly, but especially benefits military children, first responders and at-risk teens,” Howell said. “They have had 100% of program graduates go to college.”

Teens-In-Flight students have been placed at Stetson University, Embry Riddle Aeronautical Univer

sity, the U.S. Air Force Academy, United States Naval Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and more.

Teens-In-Flight began by offer ing flight training to teens whose of military service members who were killed or injured in the Global War on Terror. It later expanded to also offer training to teens of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty, and to teens who are considered at-risk.

To sponsor, donate or volunteer, go to teensinflight.org or facebook. com/teensinflight.

U.S. Air Force Col. Ed Whalen, chief flight instructor for Teens -In-Flight, shows Archer Broadhurst the controls of a Piper Cub.

Teens-In-Flight Executive Director Ric Lehman and founder Jack Howell cut the ribbon at the new facility.

Cindi Dalecki, of Marketing 2 Go.

The organization’s flight instructors: Jack Kanjian, Austin Yenser and Will Patin.

High flying fun

all weekend, the church held unique events on each day, including a craft fair and antique car show on Satur day, Oct. 22, and a pie bake-off on Sunday, Oct. 23.

The crowd was able to attend sev eral showings of Disc-Connected K9s, a frisbee dog organization that has traveled across the world per forming in and winning competi tions.

Disc-Connected rescues dogs and trains them for their acts. These canny canines are also available for adoption. The K9s performed on all three days of the festival.

The Psycho Magnets — a local band from Daytona Beach — performed on Friday and Saturday.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catho lic Church hosted a community fall festival over the weekend of Oct. 21-23.

The church enlisted volunteers to serve at the free festival, which fea tured three bounce houses and one inflatable axe-throwing display for kids, as well as miniature pony rides, rock climbing and bungee jumping, food and live entertainment.

events were available

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton hosts fall festival.

Scott Koster and Nitro perform tricks for the crowd at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church’s fall festival.

The Psycho Magnets, from Daytona Beach, performed at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s fall festival. From left to right: guitarist Brian Burpee, singer Bill Hamilton, drummer Barry Welch and bassist Mike Markowski.

Photo by Alexis Miller

Nancy Mcclure and Carol Ruffalo run the Nancy’s Fancies booth.

Photo by Alexis Miller

Melinda Riviera is in the dunk tank.

Dianna Slipvlo and her frisbee dog

Photo by Sierra Williams

Photo by Alexis Miller

Photo by Sierra Williams

LOCAL EVENTS

FRIDAY, OCT. 28

A SPOOKY GOOD TIME

When: 5:30-8 p.m.

Where: Tanger Outlets, 1100 Cornerstone Blvd., Daytona Beach

Details: Head to Tanger Out lets for Halloween activities, giveaways, music, crafts, a costume contest and trickor-treating at participating stores. The costume contest will take place on a stage near Columbia, and is sponsored by Rue and Ziffra. Registra tion will run from 5:30-6 p.m. The contest will begin at 6:15 p.m. Age ranges for the contest will be 0-2 years, 3-6 years and 7 and up. Prizes will be awarded in each age group. Event is presented by Halifax Health Medical Center.

SATURDAY, OCT. 29

SIXTH-ANNUAL RIDE FOR RECOVERY

When: 9:30 a.m.

Where: Departs from Texas Roadhouse, 1298 Palm Coast Parkway SW, Palm Coast; ends at Captain’s BBQ, 5862 N. Ocean Shore Blvd.

Details: This Flagler County Drug Court Foundation fundraiser will help support Flagler County Drug Court participants with job place ment, rental assistance and driver’s license renewals. Reg istration is at 8:30 a.m. Ride is open to motorcycles and other vehicles. Departure is at 9:30 a.m. Arrival at Bings Landing at 11 a.m. Event in cludes lunch provided by Cap tain’s BBQ, a Harley-Davidson Monopoly contest and other games and prizes. Costs: $25 per rider ($5 for plus1, $10 for each additional rider), including lunch and seats in the game. $30 for just lunch and seat in the game. For information, or to sponsor, contact Michael Feldbauer at 401-864-6997. For game ques tions, contact 386-283-2746 or email blacktie-events@ hotmail.com.

STATE, LOCAL AND NATIONAL CAMPAIGNS: THE CIVIL RIGHTS

MOVEMENT IN FLORIDA

When: 10-11 a.m.

Where: Anderson-Price Me morial Building, 42 N. Beach St., Ormond Beach

Details: Michael Butler, a Flagler College professor of history, will discuss the Civil Rights Movement in Florida. Coffee and refreshments begin at 9:30 a.m. Free. Part of the Ormond Beach Histori cal Society Speaker Series.

FOUNDER’S DAY

When: 10 a.m. to noon

Where: Palm Coast Com munity Center and Park, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE, Palm Coast Details: Learn about the history of Palm Coast. Elaine Studnicki, co-historian and president of the Palm Coast Historical Society, will share information on key people who moved the ITT project of Palm Coast and the city of Palm Coast forward.

HALLOWEEN CRAFT DAY

When: 11 a.m. to noon

Where: Ormond Beach Envi ronmental Discovery Center, 601 Division Ave., Ormond Beach Details: Get spooky with the Environmental Discovery Cen ter. Activity is recommended for ages 4-11. Costumes are encouraged. Space is limited. Call 386-615-7081.

HALLOWEEN SCAVENGER HUNT

When: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Where: Flagler Beach Farmers Market in Wickline Park, 315 S. 7 St., Flagler Beach Details: Spend the day exploring Flagler Beach and collecting goodies along with drink and food samples. Hosted by Flagler Strong, the third-annual scavenger hunt benefits Christmas Come True. Cost: $15 per adult, $5 per child under 12. Tickets are available at halloween scavengerhunt.ticketleap. com/3rd/ or can be bought on the day of the event.

TRIBUTES

Marguerite Sisti

March 20, 1946--October 28, 2021

TRICK OR TREAT EVENTS

Looking for some Hallow een fun? Here are some free local trick-or-treating events:

FRIDAY, OCT. 28

„ A Spooky Good Time — 5:30-8 p.m., Tanger Outlets, 1100 Cornerstone Blvd., Daytona Beach

SATURDAY, OCT. 29

„ Trail of Treats at The Trails Shopping Center — 1-3 p.m., The Trails Shop ping Center, 254 North Nova Road, Ormond Beach

„ SC Halloween Decora tions Trick or Treat event — 6-8 p.m., 111 Pine Creek Ct., Ormond Beach

SUNDAY, OCT. 30

„ Prince of Peace Trunk or Treat and Haunted House — 5-8 p.m., Prince of Peace Church, 600 S. Nova Road, Ormond Beach

MONDAY, OCT. 31

„ Trunk or treat — 5-7 p.m., Trinity Presbyterian Church USA, 156 Florida Park Drive, Palm Coast

WORLD’S FARE FOOD FESTIVAL

When: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Where: Holy Cross Orthodox Church, 375 Fleming Ave., Ormond Beach

Details: Holy Cross of Or mond is hosting its 13th-an nual World’s Fare Food Festi val. Enjoy Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Slavic, Arab and Mediterranean dishes, as well as dancing and music. Call 386-677-0640 for informa tion, or visit foodfare.org.

SUNDAY, OCT. 30

PASTOR APPRECIATION

SUNDAY

When: 9:30 a.m.

Where: Palm Coast United Methodist Church, 5200 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast Details: This will be Rev. Kevin M. James Sr.’s 10th Pastor Ap preciation Sunday celebration. The special guest preacher will be Rev. Lucille O’Neal, mother of basketball star Shaquille O’Neal. Lucille O’Neal is a community health advocate and author of the book, “Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go.” She is CEO of the Odessa Chambliss Foundation and is on the board of directors for the Wanda and Janice Wilson Foundation.

21ST-ANNUAL HALL OF TERROR

When: 7-9 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30; and 7-10 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31

Where: Fire Station 21, 9 Cor porate Drive, Palm Coast Details: Presented by the Palm Coast Fire Department, this free event will bring frightful fun this Halloween. This year’s theme is “Hal loween: The Night He Came Home,” focusing on the lore of the popular horror movie franchise of the same name. All ages are welcome, but supervision is recommended for ages 13 and under.

THURSDAY, NOV. 3

„ Lifecoast Trunk or Treat — 6:30 p.m., Matanzas High School, 3535 Old Kings Road North, Palm Coast

„ Crossroads Candy Maze Trick or Treat — 5-8 p.m., Crossroads, 1851 S. Clyde Morris Blvd., Daytona Beach

„ Fall-O-Ween Trunk or Treat — 6-8 p.m., Gracelife Beachside, 6 Sandra Drive, Ormond Beach

„ Tomoka Christian Church Fall-O-Ween — 6-8 p.m., Tomoka Christian Church, 1450 Hand Ave., Ormond Beach

„ Parkview Church: Trunk or Treat — 6-8 p.m., Parkview Palm Coast, 5435 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast

„ Trunk or treat — 5-7 p.m., Tomoka United Methodist Church, 1000 Old Tomoka Road, Ormond Beach

„ Halloween Trunk or Treat — 5-7 p.m., St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 5400 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast

Beach Details: Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy a showing of “The Goonies,” rated PG. Movies are weather-sensitive. Call 386-676-3216 for rainout information.

ONGOING 2022 HALLOWEEN WALK THROUGH DISPLAY

When: 5:30-10 p.m. daily

Where: 111 Pine Creek Court, Ormond Beach Details: The Schoolcrafts’ 2022 Halloween Display, with over 160 inflatables, is now open, wind and weather-per mitting. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. A movie theater plays movies nightly at dusk. There is also music and a bubble area. Well-behaved leashed animals are welcome. This year’s Trick or Treat Safe Stop is sched uled for 6-8 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29. Visit facebook.com/ scdecorationsormondbeach.

MAZE DAYZ AT COWART RANCH

When: 5-10 p.m. Friday Oct. 28; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29; and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 30

Where: Cowart Ranch and Farms, 8185 W. Highway 100, Bunnell

Details: The ninth-annual Maze Dayz is happening in Bunnell. Get lost in the farm’s maze, visit the pumpkin patch, buy local produce, take a hayride and take part in oth er farm activities. Tickets cost $10; children 2 and under are free. Visit MazeDayz.com.

ORMOND BEACH ART GUILD SPRING ART EXHIBIT

When: Oct. 10 through Nov. 4

Where: The Casements, 25 Riverside Drive, Ormond Beach

1st Anniversary in Heaven

As you celebrate your first year in heaven, please know we miss you and love you very much, and we think of you daily. We know you are enjoying every day there, and that you are at peace.

Love always, Tom, Michele (daughter), Joe Redner (son-in-law), Brooke & Brett (grandchildren), Leonora and Joan Ann (sisters). We are so happy that you and your son Michael are togeth er again.

‘DRIVING MISS DAISY’

When: 7-9:30 p.m. Nov. 3-6 and Nov. 11-13

Where: Flagler Playhouse, 301 E. Moody Blvd., Bunnell Details: See “Driving Miss Daisy” at the Flagler Play house. The play tells the story of Daisy Werthan, a rich, sharp-tongued, 72-year-old Jewish widow who is told she must rely on the ser vices of a chauffeur. She hires Hoke, an unemployed Black man whom she immediately regards with disdain, while Hoke himself is not impressed with her patronizing tone and what he believes to be her latent prejudice. The story spans 25 years and shows the pair grow closer despite their differences. Tickets cost $25 for adults; $20 for students.

FRIDAY, NOV. 4

MOVIES ON THE HALIFAX

When: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Where: Rockefeller Gardens, 26 Riverside Drive, Ormond

Details: The Ormond Beach Art Guild will hold its Fall 2022 exhibit, featuring local artists, at The Casements. An open ing reception will take place 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14. Free. The Casements is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.

THE COLOR OF RAIN

When: Sept. 3 to Oct. 29

Where: Jane’s Art Center, 199 Downing St., New Smyrna Beach Details: See this art exhibi tion composed of painted umbrella installations by the Florida Women’s Art Associa tion. Visit flwaa.com.

TURNING NEWS INTO ART

When: Sept. 12 to Oct. 28

Where: News Journal Center Fine Art Gallery, 22 N. Beach St., Daytona Beach Details: See this exhibition by the Florida Women’s Art As sociation. Opening reception will take place on Thursday, October 13, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Visit flwaa.com.

–JARLEENE ALMENAS

Fall arts fest

Regional artists and ar tisans showcased their work at Central Park in Palm Coast on Saturday, Oct. 22, during the annual Fall Arts Festival.

Local musicians played while food trucks offered tasty treats to locals who became hungry while wandering the event.

The Fall Arts Festival is a partnership between the city of Palm Coast, the Palm Coast Arts Foundation and United We Art.

For information about future events, visit palmcoastarts foundation.com.

–DANNY BROADHURST

Hightidings Apothecary was on hand with tinctures for sale. Apothecary Bethany Jo with Adam Wisecup

The Hoffmans at the event: Bailey, Marie, Tony, Peyton, Ryan, Pam, Rick and young Mason

Artist Angela DiBella and visitor Anna Patrick

Photos by Danny Broadhurst

Artists Dora and Margarite Torres display their jewelry creations.

Above: Artist Angela DiBella showcases her work through Pallet Art Repurposed.

Below: Natasha and Juliet Lightfoot with hotdog Monica Vazquez

Jared Dawson, recreation specialist for the city of Palm Coast, provides the public with city government information.

Rosalyn Smith and Vendere Lashunn McNeil

Driftwood and Décor artist Julia Walthall showcases her art.

Archer and Finn Broadhurst enjoy the festival, against a background provided by artist Julia Walthall of Driftwood and Décor.

Artist Phil Thompson

Raise the cup

The Pirates won the combined boys and girls golf match for the second year in a row.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The Palm Coast Cup doesn’t actu ally have a cup, or a trophy yet, but it does have a streak.

Matanzas defeated Flagler Palm Coast for the second year in a row in the co-ed golf match Thursday, Oct. 20 at Palm Harbor Golf Club. The tourney began last year as the golf teams’ answer to football’s Potato Bowl.

The match not only concludes the regular season with a friendly rivalry among the two Flagler County high schools, but it pairs the boys and girls golfers together. Throughout the season, they play and train sepa rately.

“It’s really a fun match,” FPC girls coach Jen DeWeese said. “A lot of the kids (from the two schools) know each other. And it’s the first time our girls and boys come together.”

With only three healthy golfers available on FPC’s girls team, the tourney was limited to three groups, but all of the FPC and Matanzas golf ers got to play. Afterward, the teams had dinner together.

The tourney was played with coed pairings in a match-play, scram ble format. Matanzas won 3-0. In the first group, Matanzas’ Alexan dra Gazzoli and Ashtin Arlaud edged FPC’s Madison Heck and Wynter Dodson by one hole.

In group two, Matanzas’ Zoe Alred and Alek Libby topped FPC’s Eli jah Thero and Katarina Becker by four holes. And in the third group, Matanzas’ Emma Markese and Trev or Challice won all eight holes over FPC’s Sienna Van Baleen and Zach Soras with the ninth hole canceled because of darkness.

“I think our kids really enjoy it,” Matanzas girls coach Brandie Alred said. “It adds community spirit and allows them to play a different for mat. There’s pressure, but it’s a fun pressure.”

Alred said the four coaches decid ed to have a rotating trophy begin ning next season.

CHALLICE TOP 10

IN TWO TOURNEYS

Matanzas sophomore Trevor Challice finished among the top 10 in two 36-hole golf tour naments earlier this month.

On Oct. 8-9, Challice shot 75, 73 to tie for ninth place among 55 golfers in the boys 13-15 division in the FJT Ocala Open at Ocala Golf Club.

On Oct. 10-11, he finished tied for second in the boys 14-15 division at the Faldo Hurricane Series North American Grand Final at the Island Course at Innisbrook Golf Resort in Palm Harbor.

After shooting 81 on Day 1, Challice moved up six spots on Day 2 with a 74, the low est score of the day in his age group. Challice earned the op portunity to meet retired tour professional Nick Faldo. The Faldo Hurricane National Grand Final will be aired on CBS Sports Network on Dec. 10.

Loa Johannsson soars at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

16-year-old

MICHELE MEYERS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

First year Embry-Riddle student and golfer Loa Johannsson shot a 74 the second day of the Flagler Fall Slam at the Marsh Creek Country Club on Tuesday, Oct. 25, leading her Eagles teammates to an eighth place finish in a field of 18 teams.

It is the 16-year-old’s first season with the ERAU women’s golf team after accepting coach Maria Lopez’s offer to join the team earlier this year and being the recipient of several academic and athletic scholarships.

“Loa is so coachable and so grate ful,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how she develops. She’s fun to work with. She’s got no attitude. She’s got fire. I like it.”

Johannsson knew she was a fit for the school when she attended a team day, sat in on one of the com puter science classes and lunched with the women’s golf team. Walking onto the campus amplified her desire to attend ERAU.

“I was blown away,” she said. “That was such a big factor. That’s what a lot of people I’ve met said that when they saw the campus, it was like, OK, I’m going here.”

Making the transition from high school golf to playing at the col legiate level was a welcome one for Johannsson. She prefers competitive tournament golf which she believes is similar. It is also a bonus that coach Lopez golfed for the Univer sity of Alabama and went on to play professionally on the Futures Tour (1993), the Asian Tour (1994, 1997), the European and Australian Tours (1994).

“She’s amazing,” Johannsson said. “She hits every aspect of the game. She’s really on top of us for our men tal game and calms us down all the time but is so hard on us in practice.

She just knows so much.”

November marks Lopez’ 23rd year coaching for Embry-Riddle includ ing a stint from 2003-2010 as the head coach for the men’s golf team. She began her golfing career as a mere toddler, tagging along with her older siblings, brother Julian Lopez Jr. and sister Nancy Lopez, as they golfed. She asked to play and they cut a set of clubs down to her size. She never stopped.

“She understands the techni cian side of golf, but she has such an appreciation for the psychologi cal factor,” Nancy Lopez said. “It’s mindset and she gets it. She appreci ates it. If you’ve got the right mindset coming in, the technical will come.”

Johannsson’s first tournament as the youngest student-athlete in Eagles history was at the Saint Leo Invitational on Oct. 17-18, where she shot 225 for the eighth lowest score in the program which included eight birdies. She went on to be the ERAU athlete of the week on Oct. 24.

Currently, the golf team’s week consists of five days of practice, two mornings of in-season strength training with the occasional scrim mage.

Johannsson must also balance a full academic schedule consist ing of an engineering fundamentals course, programming in C, market ing and calculus. After the Flagler Fall Slam, she returned to campus to meet with her engineering group who have been testing a robot they built.

Recently, Johannsson switched her major from computer science to aviation business. She is hoping to get her advanced masters in aviation finance while she is in her senior year at Embry-Riddle.

She believes only time will tell regarding whether or not she will take a job immediately after gradu

ating from ERAU or begin a career in the LPGA. For now, she wants to dial in her game and shoot under par while she considers her recent invitation to play with the Icelandic National Team.

“That’s just my personal goal,” she said. “I think our team can really take it to the next level, especially after this season. We are going to be working hard still. There have just been simple mistakes, mental mis takes, that we’ve been making. But I think with coach’s help, we are going to be good.”

FPC golfers Katarina Becker, Madison Heck and Sienna Van Baleen.

Photos by Brent Woronoff

Matanzas’ Alek Libby watches his approach shot.

Matanzas’ Ashtin Arlaud and FPC’s Wynter Dodson enjoy a moment.

Photos by Michele Meyers

ERAU golfer Loa Johannsson walks the course at the Marsh Creek Country Club during the annual Fall Grand Slam.

Loa Johannsson tries to will the ball into the hole during the Flagler Fall Slam at Marsh Creek Country Club.

Trevor Challice (right) with progolfer Nick Faldo.

Matanzas cross-country teams qualify for regionals

FPC teams survive ‘district of doom’

(21:31.2, 43rd), Kayleigh John son (21:35.7, 45th) and Mimi Jeffers (21:54.7, 56th).

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

It’s been a tough season for the Matanzas cross country teams.

The top boys runner is no longer on the team. Injuries have been pervasive. The coaches and some of the run ners contracted COVID. And all of the athletes got sick at one point, forcing the teams to miss a meet. And, of course, there was the hurricane.

But at the District 2-3A meet, which Matanzas hosted on Oct. 22, most of the Pirates posted personal-record times. And both the boys and girls teams advanced to regionals on Saturday, Oct. 29, at Santa Fe College in Gainesville.

The Matanzas girls finished fourth, and the boys placed third, after a tiebreaker with St. Augustine. The top eight teams advance.

“It helped us in a way,” said Christian Norfolk of los ing the team’s top runner. “I knew I had to step it up. We all started training harder. We knew there was no room for mistakes.”

Norfolk led the Pirates with a personal record 17:06.2 to finish in 22nd place. Freshman Blaine Vogel was right behind the junior with a 17:08.6 — the fastest freshman time in school history — to fin ish 24th. The top 25 runners earned all-district medals.

Kaden Golder (17:24.8, 30th place), Nicholas Hyatt (17:30.4, 33rd place) and Josh Sepe (18:07.4, 42nd place) also scored points for the Pirates. No. 6 runner Matt Ciardi (18:43.7) gave Matanzas the third-place tiebreaker by finishing ahead of St. Augus

tine’s sixth runner.

Ponte Vedra won both the boys and girls team titles. The Ponte Vedra girls took three of the top four places, with Lindy White finishing first in 17:43.3. Fleming Island’s Gra ham Myers won the boys race with a time 15:28.9.

Sierra Howard paced the Matanzas girls with a personal record 20:10.0 to finish 17th.

Nina Rodriguez finished in 20:14.2 to place 19th. The two juniors ran together through out the race.

“It’s better for us mentally,” Howard said. “I have more confidence if I run with a teammate.”

“We run together to moti vate each other,” Rodriguez

said. “At the end of the day, running together is only going to help our team.”

Chloe Irving (21:44.8, 32nd place) and Mariah Mills (21:53.6, 40th place) also ran together for most of the race. Rodriguez said if the four of them can run in a pack at regionals, it will help the team’s chances to qualify for state. The boys are also hop ing to run in a pack.

Last year, for the first time in school history, both the Matanzas boys and girls qualified for the state cham pionships. Like districts, the top eight teams in regionals advance.

Matanzas coach Tim Kane said both the boys and girls

can qualify if they run well again.

“We have to stay calm and not let the pressure get to us,” Howard said.

Howard qualified individu ally for state track in the 800 meters last spring. She joined the cross country team when she got to high school because her coaches said it would help her endurance. Now she wants to help lead her team back to state.

“I’m confident now,” she said.

“It’s exciting,” said Rodri guez of keeping the season alive. “Hopefully we’ll get to state again. We just have to push ourselves.”

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Flagler Palm Coast’s cross country teams survived the “district of doom” to advance to regionals. Seabreeze and Father Lopez also qualified both of their teams for the Oct. 29 regional meets. Mainland’s girls team also qualified.

FPC’s girls team finished seventh at the District 1-4A meet Oct. 22 at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, with sophomore Cassidy De Young leading the way with a time of 19:46.0 for a sev enth-place individual finish.

The FPC boys finished fifth with four Bulldogs running sub-17-minute times, led by junior Justin Gilliam’s 16:28.6 for 14th place.

Making it through the dis trict as one of eight quali fying teams is no easy feat.

Six District 1-4A girls teams finished among the top 14 at state last year, including state champ Gainesville Buchholz.

The district boys teams were even more dominant, with six teams finishing among the top 10 at state in 2021.

Barak Olago (16:47.2, 24th place), Hayden Herndon (16:48.1, 26th) and Bran don Kalasnik (16:57.9, 30th) also ran under 17 minutes for the Bulldogs. Jack Gilvary (17:25.7) and Peyton Wood ward (17:26.5) finished in 57th and 58th place. Rounding out FPC’s girls scoring were Arianna Slaughter (21:03.7, 36th place), Genesis Epstein

The Bullodgs will run in the regional meet at Santa Fe College in Gainesville on Sat urday, Oct. 29. If they finish among the top eight teams, they will be returning to Apalachee Park on Nov. 5 for the state championships.

Seabreeze’s boys finished fourth and the girls placed fifth at the District 3-3A meet at Central Winds Park in Winter Springs. Tyler Lewis led the Sandcrab boys run ners with a 13th-place fin ish (18:01.4). Hunter Shuler (18:18.9) was 24th.

Seabreeze’s Mackenzie Roy finished second overall in the girls race, with a time of 19:24.4. Ariana Roy fin ished fourth, with a time of 19:51.2, and Nickole Dane also finished among the top 10 for the Sandcrabs, with a time of 20:56.5. Mainland’s girls finished seventh, with sophomore Kiera Williams (22:09.20, 20th) and senior Molly Bronson (22:20.4) lead ing the way. The Region 1-3A meet will also be at Santa Fe on Oct. 29.

Father Lopez’s Andrew Gazzoli placed fourth, with a time of 16:38.4 at the Dis trict 4-1A meet at Lopez. The Green Wave boys finished third as a team as Talan Spires (17:20.7, 12th), Matthew Gaz zoli (17:27.5) and Felipe Pare des (17:48.9) also finished in the top 20. The Lopez girls finished eighth. Anna Nugent was 23rd, with a time of 22:01.6.

The FPC boys finished fifth, with four Bulldogs running sub-17-minute times, led by junior Justin Gilliam's 16:28.6 for 14th place.

Courtesy photo

Cassidy De Young placed seventh for Flagler Palm Coast at district.

Seabreeze’s boys and girls, Father Lopez’s boys and girls and Mainland’s girls also advanced to regionals

Blaine Vogel set a freshman school record; four Pirates finished among the top 25 at district

Christian Norfolk led the Matanzas boys with a time of 17:06.2.

Matanzas freshman Blaine Vogel, who finished 24th, fist bumps Ponte Vedra's Richard Circelli, who finished 23rd.

“I knew I had to step it up. We all started training harder. We knew there was no room for mistakes.”

CHRISTIAN NORFOLK

Photos by Brent Woronoff

“We have to stay calm and not let the pressure get to us.”

SIERRA HOWARD

Seabreeze girls, Matanzas boys win district bowling championships

The Sandcrabs will try to repeat as state champs; the Pirates won the school’s first district bowling championship.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

The Seabreeze Sandcrabs

state

The reigning state girls champs breezed to the District 3 champi onship on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at Palm Coast Lanes. Seabreeze will now try

defend its title at the state tourna ment Nov. 1-3 at the Boardwalk Bowl Entertainment Center in Orlando.

Matanzas won the boys title. It is the first district bowling champion ship in school history. The DeLand boys and girls teams, were district runners-up, and they will be joining the Sandcrabs and Pirates at state.

Flagler Palm Coast’s Emma Pez zullo and Spruce Creek’s Samantha

Powell are also headed to state as the district’s individual girls qualifiers. University’s Jacob Burke and Kolby Lyster qualified individually for the boys tournament.

“Everybody’s going to try to beat us,” said Seabreeze coach Paul Shul er. “But these girls have a way to make things work for them and finish the game like it should be finished.”

Just as they’ve done all season, the Sandcrabs dominated the district tournament. They earned the top seed in the morning games and then won three straight Baker matches without losing a game. They also won district last year on the way to the state title.

“It feels great to win again,” said Seabreeze’s Kara Beissel, who had the second-highest average in the morning games at 209, behind Pez zullo’s 231.33. “The bond that we all have as a team, it helps keep it going. It’s all a mental game. If you can make spares you’re good.”

Matanzas senior Morgan Naydich said the title is a dream come true.

“It’s absolutely amazing. I can’t even put words to describe it,” he

SO CLOSE TO A PERFECT GAME

Flagler Palm Coast junior Emma Pezzullo bowled her best ever game, a 297, in a match against Palatka on Oct. 19 at Palatka Lanes.

Pezzulo bowled 11 straight strikes before leaving three pins standing on her third ball in the

10th frame.

“I forgot to breathe,” she said. “I tugged the ball.”

Her previous high was 268.

“I was stuck on 268 for so long,” she said. “I bowled quite a few 268s.”

said. It’s something I’ve been work ing for these three years, just every single time I’ve been on these lanes.” Naydich produced the second

highest boys average with a 225.67 behind DeLand’s Tyler Sprague, who averaged 233.33 in the three morning games.

The Pirates won all three of their Baker matches. They defeated DeLand in the final, 3-1, winning the last game 179-174. Naydich clinched the victory with a strike followed by an eight in the 10th frame. But strikes in the eighth and ninth frames by Mason Evans and Jett Walden put Matanzas in position to win it, Pirates boys coach Jens Oliva said.

“If Mason didn’t strike in that

eighth frame, we wouldn’t have won it. We would have had to play a (fifth and final game).”

The Pirates avenged their only regular-season loss at DeLand late in the season.

“We took it in stride,” Naydich said of the loss. “It was, OK we have things to improve on. We know what we have to do better. This is the result of all the preparation, all the times that our great coaches put us in these different practice drills, put us in these real live situations. All that preparation led to today.”

Naydich had clinched an individ ual spot at state with his morning performance. But he said going as an individual would not have been the same.

“Honestly, it would have stung if I was the only one (from my team) to go,” he said. “I would have missed the support of these guys. They are just absolutely great teammates.”

The FPC boys and girls teams both lost in the consolation finals to the district runners-up. DeLand’s boys and girls won 3-2 in both consolation finals to secure their spots at state.

The Sandcrabs are the likely girls favorites at the state champion ships. They went undefeated during the regular season, winning 109 of a possible 112 points.

They returned all of their bowlers from last year’s championship team. At Orlando, they’ll only be missing one bowler from last year, Breanna Hess, who has been injured this sea son.

Seabreeze’s Sofia Allem had the third highest girls average on the day at 204.33.

Top girls bowlers at district: FPC’s Emma Pezzullo (233.3 average) and Seabreeze’s Kara Beissel (209.0).

Matanzas’ Morgan Naydich.

Photos by Brent Woronoff

"It's absolutely amazing. I can't even put words to describe it. It's something I've been working for these three years, just every single time I've been on these lanes."

MORGAN NAYDICH, Matanzas bowler

Bucs vs. ‘Crabs: ‘It’s for all the marbles’

Mainland crushed winless Pine Ridge four days before the Bucs’ showdown with the Sandcrabs for the district title.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

After Mainland’s 66-0 drub bing of winless Pine Ridge, Bucs coach Travis Roland walked over to talk to the Pan thers.

He had never spoken to the other team’s players postgame before. But Roland saw the look of defeat on the Pine Ridge faces on Oct. 24 at Day tona Stadium, and he felt he needed to say something. Three days earlier, Main land had suffered a 33-6 loss at Kissimmee Osceola, and Roland wanted the Panthers to understand that a loss will not define them.

“One loss doesn’t change who you are as a young man,” Roland told them. “Us los ing didn’t change that I was a good dad and a good husband and a good teacher. It just gave us a loss on our record. A loss doesn’t change that you’re a 3.5 student, it doesn’t make you not a good kid in the com munity. So just continue to

stay whole to that.”

Six players scored touch downs for Mainland in the game. Jackie Bowdry and Clarence McCloud each scored twice. The Bucs led 52-0 at the half. The third and fourth quarters were short ened to eight minutes with a running clock.

Mainland (6-2), which escaped the game injuryfree, will be back in action at the stadium on Friday, Oct. 28, for its biggest game of the year against Seabreeze. The winner will clinch the District 9-3S title and secure a spot in the playoffs.

“It’s for all the marbles,” McCloud said.

Mainland, the No. 1 team in the 3S classification as of the FHSAA’s Oct. 19 rankings, is likely to receive a playoff bid even with a loss to the rival Sandcrabs. But the Bucs, who have made the playoffs for 28 consecutive years, want to win the district, which was something they were unable to do last season.

“A win will guarantee that this senior class won’t be the one that some newspaper writes, ‘This is the first Main land senior class that didn’t make the playoffs.’ Because it is going to happen (someday),” Roland said.

“There is pressure playing at Mainland,” he added.

But his players also know that wins and losses won’t define them as people.

Football: Matanzas comeback falls short; Seabreeze, FPC roll

The Pirates fell to Clay 28-23 after rallying from a 28-7 fourthquarter deficit.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Down 28-7 early in the fourth quarter, Matanzas almost completed an improbable comeback on Oct. 21 at Clay High School.

The Pirates pulled to within five points and were driving inside Clay’s 25-yard line in the final seconds. But the Blue Devils intercepted a Jackson Lundahl pass to secure the home win 28-23.

“It was a wild night for sure,” Matanzas coach Matt Forrest said. “We just ran out of magic.”

Lundahl, a sophomore forced into the lineup due to the early-season injury to starting quarterback Dakwon Evans, threw two touchdown passes and three interceptions as the Pirates fell to 3-5 with two games remaining.

“We had no timeouts left,” said Forrest of the final play. “Jackson’s getting better every day. I know he wants that pass back.”

The late rally began with Lundahl’s 15-yard touch down pass to Braden Russell. Matanzas closed to within a touchdown on Lundahl’s pass that ricocheted off Cole Hash’s hands into Clay Vogel’s arms for the score.

After Matanzas forced a safety and failed to convert a fourth down, Ahmad LouisCharles recovered a Clay fum ble with about 2:30 left. With the help of a pass interference penalty and a pass to Hash,

the Pirates moved inside the 25 before the final intercep tion.

Hash scored on a 72-yard run early in the second quar ter to tie the score, but the Blue Devils scored two touch downs in the final minute of the half on a touchdown pass followed by a pick-six as time ran out.

“There were nine seconds on the clock. We were trying to be greedy,” said Forrest of the pass. “That’s a mistake we wish we got back.

“That was a great high school football game to watch,” Forrest added. “I was proud of our program. The mistakes, you can live with those. Our football team believed they were going to win the game. That to me is the trademark of a team going in the right direction.”

The Pirates may be without defensive back/running back Jordan Mills and defensive tackle Amir Tariq for their Senior Night game on Friday, Oct. 28, against Menendez. Mills injured his shoulder in practice last week. Tariq was injured in the fourth quarter against Clay.

FPC 55, CELEBRATION 0

The Bulldogs (6-0) took home a lopsided road victory on Oct. 21.

Quarterback D.J. Murray threw touchdown passes to four different receivers — Rodney Hill, Ashton Brace well, Marcus Mitchell and Ethan Roland.

Mitchell caught a 65-yard

scoring pass on FPC’s first play from scrimmage. Roland, a senior, caught the first touchdown pass of his varsity career in the second quarter.

“That was something we wanted to make happen,” FPC coach Robert Paxia said. “Ethan’s been working really hard for us for two years. He’s our best blocker as a receiver. He’s caught a bunch of crucial catches this year, including the fourth-and-two against Nease (in a district-titleclinching victory).”

Other firsts in the game included the first varsity catches for junior Trenton Ellis and freshman Andrew Bass, and freshman quarter back Cole Walker’s first var sity completion.

The Bulldogs finally have a bye week before ending the regular season Nov. 4 at DeLand. They will begin the playoffs on Nov. 11.

SEABREEZE 28, SOUTH LAKE 7 The Sandcrabs whipped Groveland South Lake to win their fourth game in a row to improve to 4-4.

They will meet Mainland on Friday, Oct. 28 in a game that will decide the District 9-3S championship.

Senior Sam Gonzalez threw for 177 yards and four touch downs and ran for 113 yards. Eli Campbell caught three passes for 101 yards — all for touchdowns. Tayshawn Galery caught a 40-yard touchdown pass.

“That was something we wanted to make happen. Ethan’s been working really hard for us for two years.”

ROBERT PAXIA, FPC coach on Ethan Roland's first catch.

Mainland players congratulate senior Adam Canfield after he scored a second-half touchdown.

Mainland students and fans like what they see.

“One loss doesn’t change who you are as a young man.”

TRAVIS ROLAND, Mainland coach, in his talk to Pine Ridge players

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Pool home constructed in 2020 tops sales list

Ahouse in Marina del Palma was the top real estate transaction for the week of Sept. 15-21 in Flagler County in the Multiple Listing Service. Ashley Peto, of Lakewood Ranch, sold 83 Del Palma Drive to Robert Reid Jr. and Alison Reid, as trustees, for $1 million. Built in 2020, the house is

WAYNE GRANT REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Condos McGuire and Michele Riley sold 200 Cinnamon Beach Way, Unit 135, to Diana Montero and William McFar land, of Gainesville, for $775,000. Built in 2005, the condo is a 3/3 and has 2,003 square feet.

Andrea Koleilat, of Maitland, sold 37 Village Drive, Unit 37, to Marek and Barbara Bienkowski, of Fla gler Beach, for $209,000. Built in 1989, the condo is a 2/1.5 and has 1,251 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $104,000.

Atlanta Beach Susan Coleman, of Flagler Beach, sold 2657 Annette Ave. to Candace Leitheiser, of Flagler Beach, for $460,000. Built in 1984, the house is a 2/1 and has 1,628 square feet.

Belle Terre Hammock Real Estate Development LLC, of Palm Coast, sold 9 Green Circle to Lena Madison, of Palm Coast, for $420,000. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,750 square feet.

Fuquay Linda and Peter McPhail, of Mon roe, Georgia, sold 2017 Central Ave. S. to Robert and Holly Lupo, of

Flagler Beach, for $865,000. Built in 2020, the house is a 3/2.5 and has 2,565 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $595,000.

Grand Reserve and Golf Club D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 730 Grand Reserve Drive to Anna Abbott and Kevin Zelaya, of Bunnell, for $315,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,714 square feet.

Indian Trails Brite Properties LLC, of Orlando, sold 44 Boulder Rock Drive to Rich ard and Rosemary Hoover, of Green Cove Springs, for $455,000. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/3 and has 2,306 square feet.

Vincent and Eva Scott, of Palm Coast, sold 2 Buttonwell Lane to Jack Calandrino and Lisa Camarda, of Palm Coast, for $385,000. Built in 2006, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 1,888 square feet.

Fin Homes LLC sold 48 Banner Lane to Donna and Charles Wade, of Palm Coast, for $345,000. Built in 1990, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,909 square feet. It sold in May for $307,500.

Lehigh Woods D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 16 Regent Lane to Eric

and Nadine Ruland, of Palm Coast, for $358,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,862 square feet.

Diane Suriani, of Sunrise, sold 7 Royale Lane to Raymond Declou and Pamela Scott-Declou, and Marques Declou, of Ontario, Cana da, for $350,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 2/2 and has 1,752 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $198,000.

Channy Khoeun and Sovanneth Om, of Palm Coast, sold 9 Round Table Lane to Cynthia Stewart, of Palm Coast, for $340,000. Built in 2004, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,862 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $175,000.

Matanzas Woods Stephen and Phyllis Edwards sold 52 Leaver Drive to Timothy Cul lison, of Palm Coast, for $588,000. Built in 2001, the house is a 4/3 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 3,027 square feet. It sold in 2016 for $328,000.

Morningside Carole Carrara sold 2510 Lakeshore Drive to Debra Bollerup, of Flagler Beach, for $399,000. Built in 1976, the house is a 2/2 and has a fire place and 1,041 square feet.

Not in Subdivision

Leslie Lewis, as representative, sold 116 Bressler Lane to Gilbert Moreno, of Palm Coast, for $221,000. Built in 1995, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,584 square feet.

Palma Vista

Joseph and Christa Williams, of Murphy, North Carolina, sold 327 12th St. N. to Brandi and Jef frey Sheridan, and Ray and Linda Smithson, of Flagler Beach, for $659,000. Built in 1982, the house is a 3/2 and has a boat dock, boat house and 1,208 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $399,000.

Pine Grove Troy and Jodelle Harvey, of Hill iard, Ohio, sold 13 Pine Hill Lane to Leszek and Mariola Kaminska, of Palm Coast, for $358,000. Built in 2020, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,779 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $295,000.

Pine Lakes Asila Holdings LLC, individually and as trustee, sold 70 Westglen Lane to Janet Giovanniello, of Palm Coast, for $480,000. Built in 2,198, the house is a 3/2.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,198 square feet.

JM Properties X LLC, of Cissna Park, Illinois, sold 20 Whittlesey Lane to Sharon Chen, of Port Wash ington, New York, for $368,000. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,906 square feet.

Plantation Bay

Bobby Parks and Teresa Cheung, of Ormond Beach, sold 914 Cree kwood Drive to Donald and Jeanne Dukes, of Ormond Beach, for $620,000. Built in 2019, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,994 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $475,000.

Quail Hollow

Holiday Builders Inc., of Mel bourne, sold 6 Zinnia Court to Joshua Kruelskie, of Palm Coast, for $288,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,284 square feet.

Sawmill Creek Holiday Builders Inc., of Mel bourne, sold 10 Ridge Road to Bradley and Caitlin Puglisi, of Palm Coast, for $383,794. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/3 and has 1,973 square feet.

Adams Homes of Northwest Florida Inc., of Pensacola, sold 47 River town Road to Michele Cheseroni, of Palm Coast, for $370,900. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,635 square feet.

Seminole Woods V.I.A. Group LLC, of Ormond Beach, sold 7 Squadron Place to Dmitry Sidnev, of Boca Raton, for $350,000. Built in 2019, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,833 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $228,100.

Holiday Builders Inc., of Mel bourne, sold 13 Sea Garden Path to Maria and Carlos Bahia, of Brook field, Connecticut, for $259,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,552 square feet.

Toby Tobin, of gotoby.com, contrib uted to this report.

Courtesy photo

The

by Paul

by Ross

By Luis Campos

Western Ormond Beach home sells for $2 million

Ahouse with room for horses on 43 acres west of Interstate 95 was the top real estate transaction in Ormond Beach and Ormond-by-the-Sea for the week of Sept. 13-19 in the Multiple Listing Service. Theresa Wahl, individually and as trustee, sold 3232 Maverick Lane to Gerald Daniels, as trustee, for $2 million. Built in 1990, the house is a 5/5.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool, several barns, a greenhouse and 6,089 square feet. The property includes three separate apartments.

ORMOND BEACH

Kristian and Sandra Kerr, of Ormond Beach, sold 91 Ann Rustin Drive to Donald and Tanis Collard, of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, for $684,000. Built in 1967, the house is a 4/3 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,241 square feet. It sold in January for $500,000.

Eric Lowe, individually and as trustee, sold 395 S. Atlantic Ave., Unit 708, to Kristian and San dra Kerr, of Ormond Beach, for $520,000. Built in 1982, the condo is a 3/2 and has 2,334 square feet.

Zhiying Tan, of Ormond Beach, sold 89 S. Atlantic Ave., Unit 1602, to Daria Bancala and Albert Koeck, as trustees, for $398,000. Built in 1979, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,200 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $275,000.

Justin Hamilton, of Ormond Beach, sold 557 Woodgrove St. to Rob ert Wilson, of Ormond Beach, for $365,500. Built in 1992, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 1,481 square feet.

Franco Raffini, Alexander Raffini and Susan Frigeri-Raffini, of Day tona Beach, sold 171 E. Woodhaven Circle to Dana and Derek Carr, of Sanford, for $325,000. Built in 1988, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 1,636 square feet.

Janet Narushka, of Daytona Beach, sold 357 Collins St. to Darryl and Pamela LeBrun, of Ormond Beach, for $303,500. Built in 1972, the house is a 2/2.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 1,116 square feet.

Koester Investments LLC, of Port Orange, sold 1 Lake Trail to Vatche Tavitian and Knarik Tunyan, of Ormond Beach, for $269,900. Built in 1983, the house is a 2/2 and has a fireplace and 1,468 square feet. It sold in 2011 for $95,000.

Breakaway Trails Dhina Daoud and Huda Aljonaidy, of Ormond Beach, sold 4 Creek Bluff Way to Joseph Ellis, of Wood stock, Georgia, for $425,000. Built in 1993, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,949 square feet. It sold in 2014 for $210,000.

Coquina Point Kevin Hoey, of Ormond Beach,

sold 17 Sand Point Circle to David Anderson, of Daytona Beach, for $240,000. Built in 1996, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 2,009 square feet. It sold in 2010 for $165,000.

Halifax Plantation

Vanacore Construction Inc., Of Ormond Beach, sold 1320 Tul lamore Blvd. to James and Elena Fingerle, of Ormond Beach, for $709,900. Built in 2022, the house is a 4/3 and has 2,915 square feet.

Joan Paulus, of Palm Coast, sold 3181 Bailey Ann Drive to Charles and Patricia Spano, of Ormond Beach, for $410,000. Built in 2016, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,695 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $280,000.

Kenneth Powelson, John Powelson and Donna Burnett, of Crofton, Maryland, sold 3502 Middlemore Lane to Georgia Hale, of Ormond Beach, for $332,000. Built in 1997, the house is a 2/2 and has 1,462 square feet. It sold in 2014 for $156,000.

Ormond Green Wayne and Deborah Rotman, of Ormond Beach, sold 6 Cassie Court to Harry and Kathleen Weldon, of Ormond Beach, for $655,000. Built in 1996, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 2,693 square feet.

Plantation Bay

Patricia Reedy, individually and as trustee, sold 1321 Hansberry Lane to Stephen Bingham, of Ormond Beach, for $370,000. Built in 2010, the house is a 2/2 and has 1,551 square feet.

The Trails Janice Peretti, of Ormond Beach, sold 204 Pine Cone Trail to Ofer Sharon, of Ormond Beach, for $249,000. Built in 1978, the town house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 1,696 square feet.

Sharon Millis, of Ormond Beach, sold 321 Timberline Trail to Risa Martinez, of Ormond Beach, for $215,000. Built in 1981, the town house is a 2/2 and has 1,348 square feet.

Trails North 40 David Morris, of Newberry, sold 54

Big Buck Trail to James McAleer, of Ormond Beach, for $330,000. Built in 1991, the townhouse is a 31.5 and has 1,748 square feet.

ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA

Ruth Washburn, Donna Utter and Diana Fisher, sold 1051 Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit 1003, to Mariath Da Rosa, of Ormond Beach, for $500,000. Built in 1982, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,200 square feet.

Grant Adams and Pamela Groh sold 1415 Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit 111, to Gildardo and Esperanza Montoya, of Orlando, for $355,000. Built in 1974, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,225 square feet.

Pamela Kelley sold 2820 Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit 16, to Daniel Kerr, of Everett, Pennsylvania, for $327,900. Built in 1972, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,216 square feet.

Steven and Christine Rhee, of Ormond Beach, sold 1510 Ocean Shore Blvd., Unit 4050, to Suba Investments LLC, of Ormond Beach, for $188,500. Built in 1973, the condo is a 2/1 and has 891 square feet. It sold in May for $144,000.

John Adams, of Adams, Cameron & Co. Realtors, contributed to this report.

Courtesy photo

The top seller features several barns.

The house at 4 Creek Bluff Way sold for $425,000.

RESIDENTIAL SWIMMING pool cleaning, which will consist of vacuuming/hammerhead, pool brushing, tile cleaning, netting surface of water, equipment checks,

and chemical dosing. MUST have a clean/valid driver’s license. Fulltime position preferred. $13-? per hour depending on experience. Experience of a year or more will start at a minimum of $15 per hour. Work is in the Palm Coast/Flagler County area. Bene ts Included after 90 day probationary period. 401K