Palm Coast Observer 11-24-22

Massaro selected as School Board chair

The path to power

and Stripes

Golf champion

Keira Lynch, 9, and Hayden Stearns, 8, dance to live music.

Three new members join the Flagler County School Board: Will Furry, Sally Hunt and Christy Chong.

Photo by Jake Montgomery Courtesy photo

Alexandra Gazzoli shot 68-72 to win the Class 2A state girls golf championship Wednesday, Nov. 16, at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howie-in-the-Hills.

Matanzas’ Alexandra Gazzoli wins state golf championship.

WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

Boat parade to honor Joe Rizzo

The 39th annual Palm Coast Holiday Boat Parade will be held on Dec. 3.

Hosted by the Palm Coast Yacht Club, the parade will be held from 6-8 p.m. at Waterfront Park, at 150 Waterfront Park Road in Palm Coast.

This year’s parade is being held in honor of Joe Rizzo, the former executive director of the Flagler Education Foundation, who died in March.

Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin declared Dec. 3 as Palm Coast Boat Parade Day during the Nov. 15 City Council meeting.

Sarah Ulis, chair of the boat parade, said at the meeting that there are 44 boats registered for this year’s parade, even with the recent storms.

Flagler Broadcasting will be broadcasting the event from the shoreline for the fourth year in a row, Ulis said.

This year’s lead boat is the Sunshine, Ulis said, a 55-foot wide-bodied Viking.

Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly and his wife, Mayor Alfin and his wife, and Teresa Rizzo will ride all in the lead boat during the parade.

Flagler hosts annual Festival of Trees

The holidays came early this year in Flagler County — or at least, its Fes tival of Trees did.

The event was held from 6-8 p.m. on Nov. 18 at the Palm Coast main branch of the Flagler County library.

The library hosted the Palm Coast United Methodist Church’s handbell choir and a local performing family group, the Sunshine Mafia. The two groups played Christmas tunes for the crowd.

Christmas trees decorated the library. Over 40 trees were decorated by local community organizations, including American Legion Post 115, the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Community Cats of Palm Coast, several churches, veterans organiza tions and more.

The staff dimmed the lights throughout the performances and turned on the tree lights instead: The room was backdropped by its own winter forest between the book stacks.

“We feature many trees that are decorated by local nonprofit organi zations, and we wanted to make sure everyone has ample time to come in and see them,” Library Director Hol ly Albanese said in a press release.

“This annual tradition — sponsored by both the library and the Friends of the Library — is a favorite.”

Mary Jennings directed the hand

bell choir, while the performers stood should to shoulder and rang out familiar Christmas tunes like “Silent Night” and “Amazing Grace.”

Jennings invited the crowd to come play with the choir at any of its nor mal meet ups. Handbell, she said, is a dying art that the choir is trying to preserve.

“We’re trying to keep [the hand bell choir] alive,” Jennings said. “It’s a ministry.”

The Sunshine Mafia is a local Palm Coast family that also happens to have 698,000 subscribers on You Tube.

The family said it uses its chan nels and performances “to spread sunshine.”

“We’re all about spreading sun shine,” Rachel Mills said. “Life is too short to let somebody steal your joy.”

The group performed beloved Christmas carols for the crowd, pull ing people out of their seats to join them in dancing and creating a conga line around the room.

Visitors could also take a trip and see Santa and Mrs. Claus at the event.

The two, played by Joseph and Di Pepin, listened carefully to each child that came up to see them, and handed out candy canes to every one.

The “Holly” Day Festival of Trees was held early this year because Thanksgiving happens to fall on the last Thursday of the month, accord ing to a release from the Flagler County Public Library.

FPC teams win MedNexus challenge

Two Flagler Palm Coast High School seniors won first place in the 2022 University of North Florida MedNexus Innovation Challenge.

UNF partnered with the city of Palm Coast to host this year’s challenge, with a theme of improving sleep quality in young adults. The presentations and winner announcements were held on Nov. 16 at Palm Coast City Hall.

FPC teams won first and second place, as well as the new Audience Choice Award.

Cameron Driggers and Roymara Louissaint won first place with their project “Redshield,” a screen protector that would block blue light from devices and emit red light during sleeping hours, according to the FPC website. The two each won $1,000 scholarships.

Driggers said he was shocked, but that it felt great to win, especially after seeing how many other amazing projects were presented.

“This whole experience been really amazing in giving us a voice, letting us prove ourselves,” Driggers said.

Roymara Louissaint, who won second place in the 2021 MedNexus challenge, said she took her experience from last year and used it to refine their approach this year.

“This project has really opened my mind to business ventures,” Louissaint said.

Second place went to FPC students Brandon Herrmann, Ryder McDowell, Savannah Miranda and Kimora Sanchez, with a $750 scholarship per student.

The Audience Choice Award went to Glynnis Gong, Brendan Wang, Greyson Peugh, Chloe Long and Nicholas Groth, who will share a $1,000 scholarship prize.

Jordan, Jayden and Mariah Mills perform together.

SIERRA

Lorri Patrick plays handbell.

Lilly, Rose and Pearl Groves pose with Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Photos by Sierra Williams

Mr. Speaker

As a new member of the House in 2017, representing Palm Coast, Paul Renner was thrust into a high-risk political battle that would determine his political future. He delivered, and now he’s one of the most important leaders in Florida: speaker of the House of Representatives.

BRIAN MCMILLAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

For Paul Renner to become speaker of the Florida House of Represen tatives and preside over the largest number of Republicans the state has ever elected, he had to be re-elected to his own fourth term by the citizens of Flagler and St. Johns counties on Nov. 8, and he was. But as far as his fellow members of the House are concerned, the matter was settled behind the closed doors of a confer ence room at a hotel in Orlando five years earlier, on June 30, 2017, after he had been elected by voters just once.

Between his first day on the floor, which was April 8, 2015, follow ing his win in the special election in Palm Coast, and that day in 2017 in Orlando, Renner won an epic battle with a popular, sitting governor in his own party; he also fended off the campaign of a well-connected rival who also wanted to become speaker. Then, Renner turned that rival into a close ally, unifying the party.

This is the story of how he did it, based on my interviews with key House leaders who revealed their first impressions of Renner and how he rose to the occasion in his first two years.

WHAT IS A SPEAKER?

House members can serve up to four two-year terms and are identified by their class; for example, if you are elected in 2016, you are part of the Class of 2016. One member of the Class of 2016 is chosen by classmates early on to become the speaker in the fourth term, in 2022-2024.

The member selected as future speaker is included in the leadership teams of the intermediate speakers, so he or she can gain experience need ed when it is time to become speaker.

A speaker makes crucial decisions, but often not about the laws them selves. Instead, the speaker decides which members of the party will help work out the details of those bills.

About 2,000 bills are proposed

each year. Each year, the speaker selects two or three dozen commit tee chairpersons, and the chairper sons decide which of those 2,000 bills their committees will con sider. If a chairperson doesn’t think a proposed bill has a real chance of becoming a law, he or she could reject it before it even has a chance to be heard in the committee.

Most bills have to go through questioning by and gain approval of two to four committees before they have a chance to be debated further on the floor by the rest of the House members. If the bill wins support of the majority of the House, and if an identical bill has been coordinated to be passed in the Senate, the bill goes to the desk of the governor to be signed into law.

About 200, or 10%, of the bills that are initially proposed, are ultimately sent to the governor each year.

The power of the speaker lies in helping to set the agenda for the party and who is given power to lead the committees.

A RULE CHANGE

Renner won his primary and special election in 2015 in Palm Coast after having lost his first attempt by just two votes in 2014, in Jacksonville. Even while he was running in Jack sonville, he met some of the heavy weights in the House, in Tallahassee, including Richard Corcoran, who was speaker designate for 2016-2018 (meaning Corcoran would soon be the speaker of the House, the 100th in the state’s history).

Corcoran remembers his first impression of Renner: “He was a military guy. I always tell people if they haven’t met Paul, he’s just a super honorable Eagle Scout kind of guy. His word’s his word. He knows what he believes. Great foundations.

Always seeking to come up with a big vision. And it was just all very trans parent the first time you met him.”

Renner was also visited by some candidates who hadn’t even been elected yet. Why did they care to meet him? Because while the voters

were focused on who would represent them in the House, some candidates were already thinking ahead to 2020; they wanted to be speaker.

A would-be speaker had a tall task: Persuade the two dozen or so Repub lican candidates in other races across the state that you will be the best speaker — while you’re still a can didate yourself. Get enough of them to sign a pledge card to support you, and you will be declared the speaker.

But that system was viewed with skepticism by many. Corcoran com pared it to the “wild, wild west.”

First of all, the speaker campaign is a big distraction from the task of actually winning the general elec tion. Second, it leads to rivalries and divisions among the party.

The system left a bitter taste in Renner’s mouth. The speaker can didates are in a position, he recalled, “to play psychological games with people, to suggest that if [fellow candidates] don’t get on board with their team, that they’re going to be left behind, and that may have con sequences, where they won’t have a meaningful time during their ser vice, and that is exactly the opposite of what you want in somebody to lead the chamber. … Nobody wants somebody who’s a bully to have that kind of authority.”

In other words, if you pledge your support and your favorite doesn’t become speaker, the person who is elected speaker could shut you out from committee leadership positions in your future years in the House.

The 2014 race to become speaker

designate ended particularly ear ly: “right around the primaries,” according to Corcoran. “So none of those folks who were making com mitments ever saw them legislate, ever saw them debate, saw them in committee, saw them in tough votes, saw them stand up to special interests, or any of that kind of stuff that you would hopefully want to see before you decide, ‘I’m going to make that guy, or girl, my leader.’”

Chris Sprowls won his election in 2014, in Pinellas County, and had campaigned to be speaker, but lost. In the coming weeks and months, however, the speaker designate lost the support of many members of his party, and some of the freshman House members in 2014 changed their minds and supported Sprowls. Ultimately, Sprowls became speaker.

The strife was considered so costly to the party that Corcoran and his leadership team, which now includ ed the 2020-2022 Speaker Desig nate Sprowls, decided to change the rules. From now on, starting with the Class of 2016, no one could request anyone’s support to become speaker until after the first of the two sessions ended in that freshman class’s term. That would give speaker candidates a chance to show what they’re made of, finish the first session in March, and then they could have an organi zational meeting on June 30, 2017, and elect the speaker designate for the 2022-2024 term.

By the time that change had been written into the Republican rules for the state, a lot had happened in Renner’s life. He had lost in 2014 but had moved to Palm Coast and won in 2015, meaning he was not a mem ber of the Class of 2014, but instead a redshirt freshman member of the Class of 2016.

Under the old rules, Renner would have had an advantage in the race to become speaker because he had already been a member of the House for more than a year by the time of the 2016 primaries. That meant that while most of the Republicans who were interested in becoming speaker were still campaigning to be elected to the House, he was able to support their campaigns, help them fund raise, help them knock doors and show that he would be someone wor thy of their support to be speaker. He also would have a year of experience actually legislating.

The rule change meant that Renner’s pledge cards had to be torn up.

MISSED IT?

This is Part 2 of a profile on Paul Renner. Read Part 1 here.

change came as something of a relief. “Even though they totally changed the rules of the game for me mid stream, I was very supportive of it, and I remain, to this day, extremely supportive of it,” he said. “When you see people under stress politi cally, when you see them in a fight, then and only then can you say, ‘This person has the integrity, the humil ity, the principle and the courage to lead a very diverse group of people in a very important state at a very important time in history for our country.’”

A RIVALRY

Among Renner’s rivals was James Grant, already a star of the House. The son of former Florida legis lator John Grant, James Grant was young when he was first elected in 2010 to the House (he was born in 1982 and graduated from Stetson College of Law in 2009).

After a seven-month break in his service due to a court battle by his opponent’s camp, he then won a special election unopposed in 2015, in Hillsborough and Pinellas coun ties, meaning that he was in a unique position: He had four years of expe rience in the House and now was starting over. He could, therefore, potentially serve four more terms, and, like Renner, he was now a red shirt freshman of the Class of 2016.

A story in the Tampa Bay Times indicated that Grant was a likely frontrunner for speaker because “those who have been in Tallahassee the longest often have the edge.”

Moreover, because of his prior service, Grant had developed a close friendship with Speaker Corcoran, who made all the committee chair assignments. Because of his prior service and experience, it would be natural for Grant to be given a promi nent assignment in the 2016 session.

RAY

Renner recalled telling his sup porters, “You signed this for me, but you’re going to have to decide when the time comes whether you want to stick with me or not. I can’t talk to you about it until June 30.”

Still, Renner recalls that the

Grant recalled meeting with Corcoran before the 2016 session, and they discussed the possibility of Grant running for speaker. After such a tumultuous campaign in Sprowls’ class and the rule change that fol lowed, Grant said he was told that it wouldn’t be fair for Grant to be given a key committee assignment and also run for speaker; he’d have to choose.

Grant recalled: “I really deliber ated for a while on whether or not I really wanted to do it [campaign to

Photos courtesy of myfloridahouse.gov

Paul Renner was sworn in as speaker designate in 2021, and then sworn in as speaker on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022. But his class selected him long before that, on June 30, 2017.

“He showed courage as a freshman, carrying a bill that was not popular with the executive branch. He showed his mettle.”

RODRIGUES House member

Renner, the new speaker of the House

become speaker], because I’ve seen the job up close, and the job is lone ly. It’s really hard. When you see the realities of it, it’s kind of sobering.”

But in the end, Grant decided he wanted to be speaker. He would be treated like all the other freshman, and he would aim to be their leader in 2022-2024.

The competition was set, and Grant was the favorite.

fronting the state’s tourism industry and the local economic development officials who benefited from state involvement in attracting business es to their cities. He would also be confronting the most powerful poli tician in the state: then-Gov. Rick Scott.

Scott ran his Republican campaign on one thing: jobs. Anything that threatened to chase away tourism jobs or that would allow jobs to be lured to neighboring states was going to evoke Scott’s most passionate response. Whatever political capital he had, Scott was ready to spend it to defend jobs.

Renner took the bill from Corco ran and read it. Then he started doing his research. He talked to leaders all across the state to try to understand the issue. He sought out case stud ies to determine whether taxpayer dollars were being spent wisely on promoting tourism and corporate incentives.

He recalls amassing thick bind ers of information and studying the issue leading up to watching the Super Bowl.

And his conclusion about corpo rate incentives?

“What I saw was a huge difference between what was promised at a rib bon cutting and what actually hap pened in practice,” he said.

What he learned was that those who most supported the state giving money away were those who were receiving it. “But,” he recalled in a recent interview, “it was not at all in the best interest of taxpayers that their money would be spent enrich ing companies — maybe Fortune 500 companies — to come into Florida and compete against our local busi nesses.”

The state also was spending tens of millions of dollars to advertise its attractions to out-of-state tourists.

care about people’s jobs,” Scott said. “These are individuals who haven’t experienced what I went through as a child; have never been in busi ness; don’t know the difficulty of building a business; must not think about the importance of business or jobs; are not thinking about their constituents. ... They are individuals who have never been in business, and they want to lecture me.”

As Scott toured the state, he encouraged citizens to contact their representatives in the House — including Renner — and tell them to oppose the bill and to save jobs.

Corcoran recalls it being a battle. “It went from 70 degrees to 2,000 degrees overnight,” he said. “And there’s Paul at the front of the spear, leading the charge.”

Of the four assignments given to the four frontrunners for speaker, Corcoran said, Renner’s not only turned out to be the hardest, but also the most publicized — and “it was the most troubling to the member ship.” In other words, House mem bers themselves often sympathized with Scott’s message and needed reassurance.

Politically, Corcoran said, it was like Renner being on a damaged Apollo 13 and being asked to make it work.

Sprowls, who was speaker of the Class of 2020, recalls the battle with Scott as Renner’s “make or break moment.”

It was a political opportunity of a lifetime to have such a publicized bill—one that dominated the session from start to finish. “But you had to do well, and so it was risky,” Sprowls said. “It was high profile, and there fore success or failure would be high profile. But I think he knew that he could do the work.”

In Corcoran’s judgment, Renner did the work.

When other members of the House called him to ask why Renner felt he was right and Scott was wrong, Renner patiently explained his posi tion.

“It was definitely bold reform,” Hutson recalled about the Visit Flor ida fight. “At the end of the day, he ended up winning the argument. … It got people’s attention.”

SPEAKER ELECTION

After the session ended, the can didates for speaker had about two months to campaign to the other two dozen of their 2016 classmates. Four candidates — including James Grant and Renner — delivered speeches in the conference room of a hotel in Orlando in June 30, 2017. The top two, assuming no one earned more than 50% of the vote, would go to a runoff.

The way Grant remembers it, he and Renner were philosophically aligned almost perfectly. One of the ways he differentiated himself was to show that he was uniquely suited to help improve Florida governments’ technological efficiency and cyber security. He told the members that this was a defining moment, when they had a chance to make a differ ence in how Florida was positioned for the future.

Rodrigues, a House official who was asked to help preside over the organizational meeting that day, recalled the impact of Renner’s speech.

stitutional amendment process.

“None of that happens if you don’t have a chairman like Paul,” Grant said. “We took on probably three, four, five terms’ worth of work together. ... He welcomed me with open arms, and we did a lot of great work as a result.”

Today, Grant is no longer in the House; in 2020, Gov. Ron DeSantis asked him to be the chief informa tion officer of the state’s beleaguered Division of State Technology, to help turn it around and do exactly what he had campaigned to do in his attempt to become speaker.

“Now he’s the speaker, and I’m running state technology,” Grant said with a laugh. “I think it worked out the way it should.”

Renner’s attitude about treating others well extends beyond those in power, according to Darrell Boyer. Boyer was a student at Florida State University and got a job in Tallahas see during one of the legislative ses sions. He met Renner in an elevator once.

“He took the time to ask me my name, ask me what I was doing in The Capitol,” Boyer recalled. “He said, ‘God bless, and have a great day.’”

POLITICAL BATTLEGROUND

Corcoran saw four who had a legiti mate shot at becoming speaker in the new system, including Grant and Renner. Looking back, Corcoran reflected that if the old rules had still been in place, “Paul was not in first place.”

Grant is a man with a big personal ity; Renner, by comparison, is quiet and methodical.

Speaker Corcoran and the leader ship team convened to decide what the House’s priorities would be for that session, in 2017. Knowing that this could be the time for each of the 2022 speaker candidates to prove themselves to their classmates, Corcoran told his leadership team, “We don’t want to play favorites. Let’s get all four front runners and give them each a big, hairy, auda cious goal that we want to pass.”

Grant was asked to sponsor the Assignment of Benefits bill. It was a complicated bill pitting the House against powerful special interests in the insurance industry. But as Grant called it, it was a “kitchen table” bill, meaning it was something that directly impacted family finances.

Renner was given an even more difficult assignment, a bill that would challenge the effectiveness of two entities in the state’s economic development arsenal: Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida. With this bill, Renner would not just be con

“The question there is really whether Florida is a secret, so much so that we need to spend $75 million a year to advertise the state to oth ers,” he said.

Should the state spend those dol lars at the expense of other priori ties, such as teacher salaries or the Florida wildlife corridor?

“Virtually no one on either side of the aisle, Democrat or Republican, will list those two appropriations [Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida] as their No. 1 appropriation, or the No. 1 priority of the state, and for the most part, it wouldn’t be anywhere in the top five,” Renner said.

If spending money to advertise Florida wouldn’t be any individual area’s top priority, then why would the state, which is required by law to balance its budget, spend money on it?

The more he read and discussed the issue, the more passionate he became.

“I discovered that the lack of great case studies in defense of corporate welfare was simply because there weren’t any,” he said.

Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida needed to be eliminated or reformed significantly.

As expected, Scott pushed back.

In an interview with the Florida Channel, he accused those who supported the House bill, which was sponsored by Renner, of being job killers.

“The Florida House — they don’t

The battle was “constant,” Corco ran said, and the consequences of the bill were tremendous. House members were being asked to vote for something that philosophically aligned with what they stood for — limited government and free markets — but that could mean some busi nesses, including donors, who were used to getting state money would be upset.

Renner, Corcoran said, “held the troops together and made sure they understood the vision.”

Locally, Renner also faced opposi tion, with the Flagler County Cham ber of Commerce president and the Flagler County Economic Develop ment director, who sided with Scott and urged residents to tell Renner to save local jobs. Milissa Holland was the mayor of Palm Coast at the time, and she recalls being troubled by the House bill. But she was among those who met with Renner, heard his stance, and came to agree with him, despite any possible adverse impacts locally.

“He had a very well-thought-out position on this, and he articulated it very well, and he stood strongly in his position,” Holland said. “This is what he felt. He wasn’t just grand standing.”

She remembers Renner speaking on the radio about the issue several times. He also wrote an op-ed in the Palm Coast Observer to make his case.

On the House floor, many asked Renner tough questions, and Renner had answers for everything.

As with any bill, legislators ask question to “expose weaknesses in the legislation or expose the bill sponsor as someone who doesn’t understand the impact of the legisla tion,” recalled another House leader, Ray Rodrigues. “Nobody was able to do that with Paul. Paul had clearly thought through the implications … He was able to demonstrate a mas tery of the issue and just as impor tantly, why that policy was the right public policy that we should pursue. So I think he showed courage as a freshman, carrying a bill that was not popular with the executive branch. And he showed his mettle that he was prepared, ready to defend the policy and advance it.”

With some compromises achieved, Visit Florida and Enterprise Florida were reformed, with more account ability required, and Scott signed the bill.

Travis Hutson, who represents Palm Coast in the Florida Senate, recalled watching Renner in action. It wasn’t surprising to him that he stood firm in his convictions. From the first time he met Renner, Hut son believed he had “the ‘it’ factor.” He was thoughtful, centered, prin cipled.

“What I remember was, he was asking for their vote and that the agenda that they would pursue would be an agenda that would be decided together,” Rodrigues recalled. “And I know that that concept connected with his class. They were very inter ested in a leader that was listening to them and engaging with them and working with them. … He was very deliberate about saying, ‘I’m not asking you to vote for me so that I can lead you. I’m asking for your vote so that we can go together.’”

Rodrigues helped tally the secret ballots outside the conference room, and the meeting reconvened. He then announced, “There will not be a runoff. A candidate has secured a majority on the first ballot, and that candidate is Paul Renner.”

PROMISE TO COLLABORATE Renner had defeated his rival, Jamie Grant, and could have attempted to minimize Grant’s influence and grow his own.

He did the opposite.

According to Grant, Renner ful filled his promises to work together for the benefit of the state. Before the speaker election, Renner and Grant became friends and met at a popu lar place in Tallahassee called Bird’s Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack. There, they committed to each other that they would not let their competition for speaker damage the legislative success of the House, as had hap pened in the past.

Grant recalled: “We looked at each other and said, ‘Look, this dynamic has to change. We are one team.’ I look at it like spring quarterbacks: You’ve got two guys that want to be a quarterback in the fall, and it’s a really intense competition. But in the fall, we wear the same jersey.”

In the next session, Renner was appointed to be the chairman of the powerful Judiciary Commit tee, which has two subcommittees, Criminal Justice and Civil Justice.

“And while the speaker is going to make all the appointments, the speaker at that time was very def erential to who you want,” Grant recalled. “Paul was adamant that I be his Criminal Justice chairman. So we’ve just gotten out of this race, and the first thing he does is say, ‘Hey, I want you on my team, because we’ve got this really big agenda in Criminal Justice.’

“I think a lot of other people were shocked because typically, when that race is over, the loser’s kind of bitter and whining and figuring out, ‘OK, what I do next, and how do I recover?’ and the winner’s kind of gloating. … The first thing Paul does is honor everything we’d been talk ing about.”

That year, Renner, Grant and the rest of the legislators tackled the implementation of three controver sial Constitutional amendments: restoration of felons’ rights, Marsy’s law, and the reformation of the Con

Renner was chairman of the Rules Committee at the time, an extreme ly busy position, and Boyer said his own position would be considered “the bottom of the barrel.”

Boyer was inspired. When he learned that Renner was going to be a guest speaker at a Tiger Bay meet ing in Flagler County, he drove three hours to listen. Afterward, he intro duced himself again, and Renner ended up offering him a job.

“As a poor college student, I was actually very scared,” Boyer recalled in an interview in the summer of 2022. “I didn’t have a job lined up.” Boyer became an aide to Renner, and he said he has seen the same pattern continue: “He’s nice to every single person he comes in contact with. … He listens. He wants to do a better job of representing us.”

GETTING THINGS DONE

Even before Renner was elected as speaker, he had been an advocate for one of the biggest state-sponsored wins that Palm Coast has secured, and that is the creation of MedNexus.

Within months of being elected mayor of Palm Coast, Holland met with Renner to share research she had done that indicated it might be possible to attract the University of North Florida to Palm Coast. Renner supported the idea, and he arranged meetings with all the key players in the state who could help make the vision a reality, including leaders in the Board of Governors and two suc cessive presidents at UNF.

As Holland recalls, “That led to the Board of Governors going through a series of approvals before it was heard and approved by the House, the Sen ate and then ultimately signed by the governor. This was an arduous pro cess. And it was unheard of to be able to complete acquiring and attracting a university to a community within that time period. Normally, it takes five to six years. And I really, tru ly believe that it’s the evidence of Paul’s leadership and his dedication to this community, to this region. … There was not a step in this process that Paul Renner was not part of this conversation.”

That effort also involved Hutson, but he gives the credit to Renner and Holland. MedNexus is one example that shows Renner’s skills as a legis lator. Hutson said: “He’s the kind of guy that can get it done.”

In another instance that could have gone differently with someone else leading the class, Hutson explained that an environmental bill he was promoting in the Senate raised a concern from a new House member in the Florida Keys. Renner listened to the representative and arranged a meeting with Hutson to make sure that all sides were considered.

Hutson remembers the conver sation like this: “Paul Renner said, ‘Look, you may be right, Sena tor Hutson, but this affects one of my members. Sit down and talk to him. Let’s see if we can find com mon ground.’ Those are the type of

Paul Renner consults on the House floor with then-Speaker Jose Oliva, in 2019. After he was chosen to lead the House by his class, in 2017, Renner has been included in leadership discussions with speakers ever since, to help prepare him for the role.

“He had a very wellthought-out position on this. This is what he felt. He wasn’t just grandstanding.”

MILISSA HOLLAND, on Paul Renner’s approach in 2017

“It was definitely bold reform. At the end of the day, he ended up winning the argument. … It got people’s attention.”

TRAVIS HUTSON, former House member and current Senate member, on Renner’s fight in 2017

characteristics that prove that he is a great leader for all of his colleagues.”

As with MedNexus, Renner deflected any credit for helping to resolve the concerns on Hutson’s bill. He said he sees his Republican members as a family.

“If there’s an issue that is of signif icance and significant importance to one of our members, then it’s impor tant to me,” he said.

STRONG FAMILIES

One of the most significant bills Renner was involved in in the most recent session was the Parental Rights in Education Bill, one that many around the nation saw as emblematic of ideological warfare. Was this bill a political tool by the right to energize the base, or was it something Renner actually believed in?

Renner acknowledged in a previ ous interview that some have called him ideological, and he rejects that label. He said one of his strongest motivations as a legislator is to strengthen families.

In Sept. 21, 2021, he delivered a speech to the Florida House, when he was honored for his role at the time as speaker designate. He said, “If every child grew up in a supportive family, most of society’s problems would disappear.” Moreover, “if strong families disappear, our society would crumble and no amount of govern ment programs could save us.”

In addition to his own strong fami ly as a child and teenager — his father was a minister and his mother was a public school teacher — he also had

one experience as a prosecutor in the late 1990s that reinforced his ideas on the importance of fathers in society.

In Broward County, he went through a leadership program, which included a visit to a prison where 200 juveniles were being held. Their crimes were serious enough that, if convicted, they would be sent to prison with adults. An inmate — a teenager — gave the leadership group a tour, and Renner pulled the teen aside and asked, “How many kids here have a relationship with their father?”

“Two,” the teen said. “Me and one other kid.”

During my interview with Renner in the conference room at Flagler Broadcasting, at this point, the interview came to a pause as Renner tried to collect himself. With tears coming to his eyes, he said, “Don’t tell me that fathers don’t matter.”

“What did you think when you heard him say that?” I asked.

“Sad,” he said.

“Did you think about your own father?”

Renner didn’t answer the question directly. Apparently still lost in that memory, he just repeated: “Sad.”

When he composed himself, he apologized for getting emotional and then joked that his own fatherhood was likely to blame. He has a toddler and an infant at home.

“I’m getting three or four hours of sleep a night,” he said. “I didn’t mean to break down on you. But fathers matter a lot. So that’s why I get up in arms about this whole parental

rights bill.”

He was referring to the bill that gives parents more control over what their children are taught at school. It also ensures that homosexual ity and gender identity cannot be discussed before fourth grade, and only in an “age-appropriate” man ner after that. Opponents called it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, a term that Renner despises; he feels it’s a gross manipulation of the bill.

“Look,” he said during our inter view, “you can raise your kids the way you’re going to raise them. And your faith and your values – I’m 100% behind you, even if they’re different from mine. But that isn’t the role of the schools. Their job is to teach kids to read and do math.”

There is an “elitist view” that typi cally comes from the political left, he said, that says, “‘We know best. We know better than parents how to raise your children.’ And I find that really offensive, and I’m 100% com

mitted, in opposition, to that phi losophy.”

He continued: “If you want to teach your kid to be a progressive Democrat, to believe there’s no God, to think that our country is a terri ble, awful place, then I support your right to do that. That’s your family. Those are your values, and you’re entitled to them as an American.

Period.” For emphasis, he repeated: “Period. This idea that we’re going to try to cancel people, or take kids and indoctrinate them against what their families believe, is the end of America. We need to do everything possible to strengthen families.”

Renner said strong families are among the most important tools to battle drug abuse, mental health struggles — just about every societal ill.

To weaken the family is akin to attempting to “reject human nature.”

It’s a philosophy that would “reject the world for what it is, for the world

that they want. And that is ideology. And that’s why I say that I don’t see myself as an ideologue.”

He doesn’t see himself simply as a conservative but first and foremost as someone who loves the Constitu tion. But, he added, “I hope that’s everybody.”

After the organizational meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 22, Renner will serve as speaker of the House until his final term comes to an end, in 2024.

Paul Renner, with Richard Corcoran, who was the 100th speaker in the history of the Florida House. In 2017, Corcoran gave Renner what many considered a makeor-break assignment: a high-profile bill that was supported by House leadership but opposed by the governor.

“I always tell people if they haven’t met Paul, he’s just a super honorable Eagle Scout kind of guy. His word’s his word.”

RICHARD CORCORAN, former speaker of the House

“It was high profile, and therefore success or failure would be high profile. But I think he knew that he could do the work.”

CHRIS SPROWLS, former House speaker, on watching Paul Renner handle the political battle of

2017

COPS CORNER

NOV. 3 SPEED DISPUTE 7:43 p.m. — Intersection of South Atlantic Avenue and Vining Court, Ormond Beach Resisting an officer without violence. An officer was con ducting traffic enforcement when he spotted a blue SUV traveling down South Atlantic Boulevard at 48 mph in a 35mph zone.

The officer conducted a traffic stop. After the officer asked for license and registra tion, the driver, a 54-year-old Ormond Beach man, “imme diately became argumenta tive,” a police report states. The man said he’d had his cruise control set to 40 mph and demanded to see a printout of the radar findings.

He repeatedly refused to provide his license and reg istration, and began record ing with his cell phone and demanding that a supervisor respond to the scene.

The officer ordered him out of the car and opened the driver side door, but the man pulled it shut again.

Other officers soon arrived, and the man was again told to exit his vehicle. He refused, and when officers tried to open his door again, it was locked. He eventually did exit the vehicle and reached in his

pockets for his documents, at which point he was restrained by police and taken to jail.

NOV. 4

A ‘WHITTLE’ MISFORTUNE 9:49 a.m. — Seton Place, Palm Coast Grand theft, burglary. A Flagler County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to a home burglary that totaled $1,229 in loss.

The home, which was under construction, was missing 30 16-foot two-by-fours at $379, plus 30 metal weighted wedges totaling $70 and 12 rolls of roofing barricade at $780. The materials disap peared between 3:50 p.m. Nov. 3 and 8:30 a.m. Nov. 4.

Though the construction manager wished to press charges on behalf of the com pany, no evidence was found.

NOV. 9

BREAKING CURFEW 11:14 p.m. — First block of West Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach DUI. While an officer moni tored the bridge closure during Hurricane Nicole, a black truck approached the roadblock where officers were checking drivers licenses. Only beachside residents were allowed to cross.

Officers tried to speak with the driver, a 48-year-old man from Daytona Beach, and noticed his speech and motor functions were altered, according to a police report.

When asked where he was going — there was a curfew in place — the man could not give a direct answer. He was asked if there were any firearms in the truck, and the man reached for the con cealed weapon at his hip.

He was asked to step out of the vehicle and detained for officer safety. Officers suspected he was under the influence, but the man declined to perform field sobriety exercises. He was taken to jail.

NOV. 15

IN HINDSIGHT

5:30 p.m. — Kasper Path, Palm Coast Criminal mischief. The Sher iff’s Office was called out to a home on Kasper Path for a residential burglary. The homeowner, who was not there, called because his ex-girlfriend was trying to get inside the home and did not have permission to be there.

Once there, deputies saw the ex-girlfriend with a man. The man admitted that he’d broken the bathroom window so the woman could get her belongings, the arrest report said. He was arrested for criminal mischief.

The woman wouldn’t speak without an attorney present, and was let go.

On the way to the jail, the man told deputies that “he knew he did wrong by break ing the window,” the report said.

YOUR TOWN

CRIME REPORT

FLAGLER HUMANE SOCIETY STARTS MATCH

CAMPAIGN

The Flagler Humane Society is celebrating its 10th an niversary as partners with GivingTuesday, a global generosity movement created in 2012 to encourage people to do good.

This year, the FHS is hold ing a Give-Early and become a Matchmaker campaign, with a goal of raising $15,000 that will be used to match all donations during the official GivingTuesday event on Nov. 29, according to an FHS press release.

To become a matchmaker, visit FlaglerHumaneSociety. org or call 386-597-0966.

SIT’N STITCH GROUP SEEKS WOOL DONATIONS

A Sit’n Stitch group that meets every Monday and Wednesday at the Palm Coast Community Center to knit, quilt and crochet blankets for nonprofits is seeking dona tions of wool.

To donate, bring the wool to the Community Center, 305 Palm Coast Parkway NE, at 9-11:30 a.m. on Monday or Wednesday when the group meets.

Sit’n Stitch donates to non profits such as Christine’s Blankets, Blanketeers, Project Linus and others, according to a press release.

PEDERSEN NAMED FIREFIGHTER OF THE YEAR

Palm Coast Fire Department Driver Engineer Anthony Ped ersen has been named the 2022 Firefighter of the Year by the Flagler-Palm Coast Kiwanis Club.

Pedersen, a 2015 Matanzas High graduate and a secondgeneration Palm Coast

TEMPLE BETH SHALOM HOLDS VETERANS DAY SHABBAT SERVICE

Veterans and others attend ed Temple Beth Shalom in Palm Coast on Friday night, Nov. 11, for a special Veterans Day Shabbat service, accord ing to a press release.

firefighter — his father Erik previously served — started his career with the depart ment in July 2018 after serv ing as a volunteer intern for 18 months, according to a Fire Department press release.

He earned his paramedic certification in 2018 from Daytona State College and firefighter certifications in 2016. He is working toward fire officer and fire inspec tor certifications, has joined the Lieutenant Mentoring Program and is the station’s supply chain coordinator.

Pedersen was selected because of his commitment to training and focus on future leadership. Among his

Temple Beth Shalom is located at 40 Wellington Drive in Palm Coast.

For more information, go to tbspalmcoast.org/.

responsibilities is ensuring that front-line apparatuses are stocked with emergency medical supplies.

“Driver Engineer Anthony Pedersen is an emerging leader within the Palm Coast Fire Department,” Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said. “Anthony is an energetic, up-andcoming team member who’s demonstrated leadership through joining the Lieuten ant Mentoring Program.”

Pedersen could not attend the original awards presenta tion because he was deployed to Fort Myers Beach with Ad vanced Life Support Engine 232 to answer 911 calls after Hurricane Ian.

Man fires gun inside local bar over missing keys

A man was arrested after he fired six shots inside Smiles Nite Club in Palm Coast over a set of missing keys.

Connor Anderson, 30, of Palm Coast, got into an argument with his girlfriend at the bar — located at Palm Harbor Village Way — over his missing car keys, the arrest report said. The report said Anderson went outside to calm down but returned with his gun from his vehicle.

He held the gun to his girlfriend’s head, and other patrons attempted to disarm him, according to a press release from Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.

Anderson pointed the gun at several people in the club, the arrest report said, but was tackled to the ground by the several patrons.

Anderson fired six shots into the bar during the fight before he managed to run out the door, the report said.

No one was injured.

“It is amazing this dirtbag did not kill or seriously injure anyone during his moment of rage over something as small as his car keys,” Sheriff Rick Staly said. “Violence is never the answer, and alcohol and guns never mix well.”

He added, “Anderson will be learning that the hard way as he sits in jail at the Green Roof Inn. I also commend the patrons that intervened and immediately called us. Putting themselves in danger in this case saved many lives.”

Anderson was found in a parking lot on the 20 block of North Old Kings Road and was arrested.

He faces six counts of shooting into or throwing deadly missiles, among other charges, and is being held on a $542,000 bail at the Sheriff Perry Hall Inmate Detention Facility.

TRIBUTES

Jean Emily Hooker, 100-year-old resident of Palm Coast, left this earth on November 12, 2022. Jean was born on September 17, 1922 to Warren and Alice Smith in Rutland, Vermont. Jean graduated from Rutland Highschool in 1940 and went into educational studies at Castleton University. After graduating with her degree, she went on to teach at a one room schoolhouse in Goshen, Vermont.

While teaching she rented a room from a local car penter who had a grandson that caught Jean’s eye. Jean met Joseph Hooker while playing the piano and soon their melody blossomed into a budding relationship. They were married a short time later in 1944. Jean and Joseph went on to have 6 wonderful children while running a farm, eventually a country store and then moving to South Daytona, Florida where they retired. After Joseph’s passing in 1995, Jean moved to Palm Coast where she enjoyed volunteering at our local senior center, playing poker, spending time with family and watching butterflies.

Jean was predeceased by her husband Joseph C Hooker, daughter Julie Davis and her three sisters,

Edith, Harriet and Bea. She is survived by her brother Grant and his wife Eleanor, her five children and their spouses Melvin and Patricia, Alan and Debbie, Kathy and Glenn, Tracey, Terry and Ruth. Her sixteen grandchildren and their spouses, Kelly and Derek, Stacey and Bernard, David and Pam, Marsha and Steve, Mike and Amber, Jenny, Kimberly, Kristin and Hugh, Corinne and Tom, Claire, Joseph, Tiffany, Charlie, Mindy, Alexander, and Veronica. Her fifteen great grandchildren, Cooper, Canon, Peyton, Pierce, Alyssia, Justin, Desiree, Marissa, Cheyenne, Summer, Annalyse, Hope, Kailynn, Emma and Atlas. Lastly her three great great grandchildren, Rome, Royal and Henry.

A Celebration of her life will be held at Lohman Funeral Home Daytona, 1423 Bellevue Avenue, Daytona Beach, Fl 32114. The family

will accept visitors on Friday November 25, 2022 from 6 to 8pm and the services will be Saturday November 26, 2022 at 10:00 am followed by Graveside Service at Daytona Memorial Park. As this is a celebration of life and Jean loved butterflies, please wear bright beautiful colors to represent the butterflies she loved so dearly.

Condolences may be shared with the family at www.lohmanfuneralhomes. com

Arrangements are under the careful direction of Lohman Funeral Home Daytona.

Sex offender arrested near childcare facility

A registered sex offender from Pinellas County was ar rested on Nov. 16 for loitering in the parking lot of a child care facility and for failing to update his address.

The incident occurred at a childcare facility in the 1000 block of East Moody Boule vard. The deputies who re sponded to the facility wrote in their reports the man was acting erratic toward people who weren’t there.

The man was taken to the Flagler County Inmate Facility.

Convicted felon arrested with gun in his possession

A convicted felon is in the Flagler County jail after being arrested for two felony counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition.

A Florida Highway Patrol of ficer pulled over a vehicle go ing 98 mph on Interstate 95 just after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 15, according to an arrest report. The officer smelled marijuana and called for K-9 backup to search the vehicle.

The driver, a woman, and the male passenger were asked to exit the vehicle, but before the vehicle could be searched, the man told the officer there was a shotgun in the backseat. He told the offi cer he did not have any felony convictions.

A background check found that the man had two felony convictions — one for cocaine possession and one for forged bills, checks, drafts or notes.

During the search, the of ficers found shotgun rounds in a blue bag, small amounts of marijuana and a grinder.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE:

Friday, November 25, 6PM Lohman Funeral Home 1423 Bellevue Avenue Daytona Beach, Fl 32114

The woman told deputies the gun was hers. The woman was released with a traffic citation and the man is being held at the county jail.

Courtesy photo

Left to right: Bernie Kershner, Alan Goldman, Alex Maller, Robert Arkin, Stan Kates, Jonathan Hubbert, Ed Blitz, David Ryone. Not pictured: Susan Bird, Abe Bockish, Stuart Cartoon, Robyn Hol brook, Jerry King, Steve Kohen

Courtesy photo

Palm Coast Fire Driver Engineer Anthony Pedersen is presented the 2022 Firefighter of the Year Award.

Mosquito control coverage to expand

The East Flagler Mosquito Control District will increase mosquito control services in southern and western Flagler.

SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER

Southern and western Flagler County will soon receive more mosquito control services.

The Flagler County Com mission unanimously approved a request to expand the East Flagler Mosquito Control District’s coverage in Flagler County.

While the EFMCD’s cov erage expansion will add a property tax for the new areas, the expansion will allow the EFMCD to monitor and treat mosquito populations in those areas regularly, not just on demand, meeting docu ments said.

“This is something I’m very glad to see coming on here, because we have needed this in the county with our unserved areas,” Commission Chair Joe Mullins said.

Some mosquito-borne illnesses include malaria, dengue fever and West Nile virus, according to the Fla gler County Florida Health website.

Agencies like the EFMCD monitor for illnesses and control mosquito population sizes.

The new coverage areas in Flagler County will be in two sections, according to county commission meeting docu ments.

MULLINS HONORED AT LAST MEETING

In the south, it will include the area east of U.S. 1, from north of Korona to the Volu sia County line. In the west, it will move west of U.S. 1 to include the Florida East Coast Railway, from County Road 13 north to the St. Johns County line, according to the docu ments.

Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord has been working the EFMCD on the expansion for over a year.

He said the project has multiple phases, and the first phase began in December 2021 with surveying for potential expansion areas.

Over the last year, Lord’s team and the EFMCD sur veyed areas in Plantation Bay and the northwest of Palm Coast that have been devel oped since the last service agreement was created in 2003.

The surveys helped to establish the new coverage boundaries for the EFMCD.

Lord said services and rev enue collection — the tax residents in the expansion area will pay — will not begin until October 2023. However, the county needed to approve the expansion before Jan. 1, 2023, because of a law about taxation in areas that include a railroad line.

The law requires new taxes involving railroad land to be approved and enacted before Jan. 1 of the year they are set to start, even though the tax wouldn’t begin until later in the year, Lord said.

“There’s a separate timeline because of how the railroad does its taxing,” Lord said.

The next phase of the proj ect will be a coverage expan sion to Espanola and Rima Ridge, Lord said.

The two communities began receiving year-round monitoring in March.

YOUR TOWN

THREE

STUDENTS

WIN ‘GREAT KID’ AWARDS

Three students have been recognized with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office’s Great Kid Awards for Septem ber 2022.

Sheriff Rick Staly met with the students Nov. 14 and presented their awards. The event had been delayed due to Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, according to an FCSO news release.

The awards are presented monthly to one elementary student, one middle school student and one high school student.

LUKE THOMAS, OLD KINGS ELEMENTARY

Luke Thomas exceeds ex pectations on a daily basis and is a role model for other students, showing his dedica tion to learning and kindness to all, according to the news release.

MITCHELL EDELSTEIN, BUDDY TAYLOR MIDDLE

Mitchell “Spencer” Edel stein has been involved in the Principal Advisory Club and musical theater, and is a member of the House Lider anca leadership team. He was the BTMS and Flagler County Spelling Bee champion and is the first BTMS student to dual enroll at Daytona State College.

JARED FOLEY, FLAGLER

PALM COAST HIGH

Jared Foley has a weighted district GPA of 5.1. He is trea surer of HOSA Future Health Professionals and a team leader on the FPC’s Student Government Association Executive Board. He is on the Robotics Team and Med Nexus Team, takes Advanced Placement classes and is a drone specialist.

TRIBUTES

Mullins

The Nov. 21 meeting was the last meeting in his term; Mullins lost his re election bid to challeng er Leann Pennington.

During the board’s meeting on Nov. 21, County Administrator Heidi Petito brought Mul lins down from the dais to be recognized with a plaque for his service.

“We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Dis trict 4 Commissioner Joe Mullins for his passion and dedication in serving the residents of Flagler County,” Petito said.

Mullins said he has made dear friends of the people who serve on the board and as part of the county’s staff, but he is looking forward to spending time with his children. He said that what the board has ac complished is incredible, and he was proud to be a part of it.

“I know my style was a little different,” Mullins said. “I’m going to miss it, but at the end of the day, I’m not going any where — I’m here to help you guys.”

2022.

A memorial service was held at Clymer Funeral Home & Cremations, in Palm Coast, FL, on Monday, November 21st, 2022, at 3:30 p.m. The family received friends for visitation from 2:00 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., prior to the service. In terment will follow in the spring of 2023, in Stowe, VT.

Mary was born on April 6, 1930, in Freehold, NJ, to the late Wesley Walling and Dorothy (Allen) Walling. She attended Freehold High School and worked as an ad ministrative assistant to the Civilian Director of Opera tions at Camp Evans, Wall Township, NJ. Loving the small-town life, she moved to the village of Stowe in Vermont in 1979. There,

with her love of children, she became a teacher’s aide at Stowe Elementary for 20 years. She retired to Palm Coast in 2004.

Mary was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 60 years, Robert M. Statesir. She is survived by her son, Kevin R. Statesir of Waterbury, VT; her daughter, Susan Anastasio and son-inlaw Trey Anastasio of NYC; granddaughters, Eliza and Isabella Anastasio; her step son, Robert Statesir of Brick, NJ. She is also survived by many extended family mem bers and close friends.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mary’s name to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at www. stjude.org

The family of Mrs. Statesir entrusted her arrangements to Clymer Funeral Home & Cremations.

Mary Jane “Mary” Statesir (nee Walling) of Palm Coast, Florida, passed away peace fully on November 3,

Mary Jane “Mary” Statesir 1930-2022

Flagler County commis sioners said farewell to Chairman Joe Mullins on Nov. 21.

has served on the board since Novem ber 2018 and has been chairman since 2021.

Courtesy photo

New Flagler County School Board sworn in

chair after new board member Will Furry nominated her for the posi tion. No other board members were nominated.

Three new members joined the Fla gler County School Board on the morning of Tuesday, Nov. 22, as the board was individually sworn in by County Judge Melissa Distler at its

monthly meeting.

The new board members are Will Furry, Sally Hunt and Christy Chong.

They join returning members Cheryl Massaro and Colleen Conklin.

The board also elected a new chair and vice chair.

Massaro was unanimously elected

“I promise to do the best I can to keep moving this district forward and concentrate on academic excel lence,” Massaro said. “I’ve got my baby shoes on ... give me a couple of meetings and I should hit the ground running.”

While the selection of the chair

was unanimous, the selection of the vice chair hinted at a potential divide that could mirror the previous board.

Conklin was retained as vice chair after a 3-2 vote.

Chong nominated Furry for the position, while Massaro nominated Conklin.

Massaro, Conklin and Hunt voted for Conklin. Furry and Chong voted for Furry.

BATTALION CHIEF THOMAS ASCONE

MARKS 25 YEARS

Palm Coast Fire Department Bat talion Chief Thomas Ascone recently celebrated 25 years of service to the Fire Department.

Ascone began his career with the Fire Department in October 1997 as a Firefighter-EMT. He had been a volunteer firefighter since 1994, according to a news release from the Fire Department.

“We’ve been blessed to have Tommy on our team for longer than we’ve been a city,” Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill said. “Not only is he an incredible firefighter and paramedic, but he’s also a great emergency manager for our city and has led us through the last several years and serious storms that have hit our region, including Hurricanes Ian and Nicole just this year. We’re proud of his efforts and thankful for his dedi cation to public service.”

Ascone grew up in Palm Coast and Mahopac, New York, and earned his firefighter, EMT and paramedic certi fications from Daytona State College, then earned a bachelor’s in public ad ministration from Flagler College and a master’s degree in public adminis tration from Barry University.

Ascone was one of the depart ment’s first paramedics and helped create the department’s Advanced Life Support Program. He was rec ognized as the Florida Paramedic of the Year by the Florida Fire Chiefs’ Association.

Main

Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt with School Board members Cheryl Massaro, Colleen Conklin, Sally Hunt, Will Furry and Christy Chong

Cheryl Massaro was selected as the board’s chair, while Colleen Conklin will continue as the vice chair.

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Courtesy photo

Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill, Battalion Chief Thomas Ascone and Deputy Chief Bradd T. Clark

‘Spirit of Thanksgiving’

JARLEENE ALMENAS SENIOR EDITOR

Rabbi Robert Lennick had never seen what 300 turkeys look like all together.

After the annual Thanksgiving turkey distribution by the Jewish Federation of Volusia and Flagler Counties on Tuesday, Nov. 22, Lennick can now say he has.

“It’s pretty incredible to watch and see all the volunteers,” he said. “These are like angels, who come here week after week to support the pantry. This just captures, I think, the spirit of Thanksgiving in the best way.”

Lennick is the Jewish Federa tion’s new executive director, hav ing started working at the non profit in September. He succeeds the late Gloria Max in the position, continuing the longstanding mis sion of helping the community, regardless of race, religion or eth nicity. The Jewish Federation’s Jerry Doliner Food Bank at 470 Andalusia Avenue distributes food to families in need every week, but Thanksgiving is one of its largest distributions.

“It’s humbling to even attempt to try to fill her shoes,” Lennick said of Max’s impact. “... She set an example that really has inspired so many people for so many years, and we’re the lucky ones, in a sense. We get to stand on her shoulders, and Ray’s shoulders, and I hope we live up to her good works.”

This year, over 275 families were scheduled to pick up groceries to help them celebrate Thanksgiving, and Lennick said the distribution

included all the fixings: mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, fruits, pies, breads and a 15-pound turkey, of course. With an aver age of four people in each family, over 1,100 people would have a Thanksgiving dinner thanks to the distribution, the Jewish Federation estimated.

It was drizzling the morning of the distribution, and volunteers manned the drive-thru distribu tion. The cars were lined up all the way down Andalusia Avenue.

“It’s just wonderful,”said Marvin Miller, president of the Jewish Fed eration. “People are happy.”

Food insecurity is a major issue, and it’s a growing problem all over the U.S, said Lennick, who was previously the CEO at the Jewish Federation of New Mexico. Provid ing families with a Thanksgiving dinner is a way to help them relax during the holidays.

“Any of us could be one meal away from having food insecurity,” Lennick said. “You can’t predict life all the time — hardly at all, as a matter of fact. The whole point of Thanksgiving is to welcome the stranger. It’s interesting, in the Bible, that statement — to remem ber the heart of the stranger — it’s repeated more than any other of the commandments, and this is a way we can help.”

Lennick said he moved to Ormond Beach because he wanted to be part of the local Jewish Feder ation. People here “get it,” he said.

“This is the first Jewish Federa tion where I’ve seen such a deep commitment to hands-on helping other people,” Lennick said.

Volusia’s school impact fees to increase

JARLEENE ALMENAS SENIOR EDITOR

Citing concerns about population growth, the Volusia County School Board voted 4-1 on Tuesday, Nov. 15, to increase the school district’s impact fees on new construction. They have not changed since 2013. Impact fees will now be $7,022.70 for single-family homes, $3,728.95 for multifamily and $1,415.25 for mobile homes. Currently, all resi dential units are assessed a $2,942 impact fee, so the new rate for mobile homes is actually a reduction. The new rates will be effective 90 days from the board’s adoption.

The school district uses impact fees to fund construction of new schools and renovation of existing campuses. Fourteen projects in the district’s five-year work program are eligible for impact fee fund ing, according to a staff presenta tion. Among them is the creation of a master plan for a new Tomoka Elementary.

“We are behind, actually, due to the growth that we have had in Volusia County,” School Board member Jamie Haynes said. “And ideally, we should use that money so that we don’t have to use portables.”

School Board member Linda Cuthbert was the lone vote against the increases. She said the impact fee increase for single-family homes — which is rising by over $4,000 — is too high. She said she would have supported an increase that was

around $1,500 less.

The Nov. 15 meeting was also Cuthbert’s last, since the District 5 representative did not run for reelec tion. Cuthbert will be succeeded by Jessie Thompson.

At the workshop, the board and representatives from the district’s negotiated rulemaking committee, which is made up of district staff and members of the Volusia Build ing Industry Association, discussed the impact fees.

Although the committee met sev en times between November 2021 and October 2022, the members did not present a recommendation to the board, since they had not reached consensus.

District staff on the committee recommended adopting the new fee at 100% of the amount suggested by a district impact fee study — $8,262

for new single family homes — using a tiered schedule, but said they were willing to negotiate to 75% of the study’s recommended fee. Mean while, VBIA representatives didn’t feel any of the impact fee increases were appropriate, but were willing to negotiate a single fee between $3,500 and $4,000.

Because of Florida House Bill 337, passed last year, impact fees cannot be increased more than once every four years, and increases cannot exceed 50% unless a district shows “extraordinary circumstances” war ranting a steeper hike.

The district conducted its impact fee study to establish extraordinary circumstances to override the 50% increase cap. The board chose to adopt the fee at 85% of the study’s recommendations. Cuthbert had suggested 65%.

“Yes, we inherited this, but at some point, we’ve got to do what’s right,” School Board Chair Ruben Colon said during the workshop. “And we

know that growth is happening, and what I hear the most in my district is, ‘We have all these new houses going up, what are we doing for schools?’ The schools are crowded. So I can’t in good faith say, ‘Let’s do the 65%.’”

Colon said he felt the VBIA’s rejec tion of the proposal to adopt 75% of the study’s recommended fee was “crazy,” as he considered that to be a reasonable compromise. He said he didn’t think the board, the district and the VBIA would ever come to terms, and expects litigation.

“I will point out, this is not on cur rent residents,” he said. “This is on growth. This is new people coming to our area, and we have a growth problem in Volusia County — there’s no question about that. Infrastruc ture is not there, and I would be hard-pressed to not support things that would put the infrastructure in place, and I would be hard-pressed to continue that pattern of kicking the can down the road in hopes that someday we can do what is right.”

Fees for single-family homes will rise by over $4,000.

Volunteer John Shelton unpacks the turkeys and readies them for distribu tion.

Volunteers Mike Blazis, Carl Shumate and Laurrie Blalock help distribute groceries.

Jewish Federation President Marvin Miller helps distribute groceries.

Volunteers Paul Tibbetts and Randy Macdonald help pack Thanksgiving groceries in people’s cars.

Jewish Federation helps over 1,100 people have a turkey dinner this holiday.

Photos by Jarleene Almenas

Furry’s response to PAC flyer is disturbing

Dear Editor: Will Furry will take a seat on the Flagler County School Board, hav ing defeated Courtney VandeBunte. But will he sit comfortably in that seat with the knowledge that a fake PAC-financed campaign flyer, pre tending to be something it wasn’t, may have influenced the election results of the election?

The fake flyer represented dirty politics at its finest. But what is also disturbing is Furry’s response to the flyer and its blatant false hoods about VandeBunte. Instead of condemning the falsehoods, Furry, when asked about the flyer, stated, “I believe in free speech, and that was their free speech.”

He seemingly brushed aside the fraud and fakery, disregarding the unethical actions of the PAC. Fraud does not have  “free speech” First Amendment protection.

Furthermore, applying Furry’s apparent mindset of conflat ing lies with free speech is not a healthy approach for a School Board member who should be advocating fact-based learning, honesty and integrity for our students.

And for Furry to not strongly denounce the dishonesty, espe cially in light of his professed strong Christian values, is also disturbing.

ROBERT GORDON Palm Coast

A Cimmaron Thanksgiving

Dear Editor:

Every weekday morning, I see so many kids walking and sitting on Cimmaron Drive waiting for the school buses. I often wonder, what’s the difference of a sidewalk for a youngster having to walk to one’s school or to a school bus stop?

I am so thankful nothing has hap pened to these children. I am thank ful that for a while, with schools closed for the holiday, no kids are out on the street or bus stops.

Speaking of Thanksgiving and Cimmaron, there is so much to be

thankful for. First, no serious school kid or pedestrian accidents.

Another: Thanks to the city and Sheriff’s Office for improved signage and more daily police presence.

Also, a big thank you to the Palm Coast City Council and city for how far they have brought the sidewalk program along in 2022.

Great gratitude should go to all the volunteers who have been so loyal in having resident petitions signed, making over 115 presentations to the City Council on Safety on Cimma ron, attending community meetings.

Anyway, just a big thank you everybody for bringing the sidewalk city program further along in 2022 for a safer, walkable, healthier com munity.  We are heading into the final stretch where funding through grants, memorials, etc. will have to happen in 2023.  Everyone have a great Thanksgiving.

P.S.: If you or anyone (family and/ or company) would like to have a lifelong memorial monument on Cimmaron, even a company that would like a great advertising opportunity, the sidewalk could provide it. This would be the start of connecting collector streets in much need of safety walkabil ity improvements. Thank you in advance for your consideration.

AL KRIER, SAFETY ON CIMMARON COMMITTEE Palm Coast

Observations of a poll watcher

Dear Editor:

I estimate that no less than 20% of the voters that showed up to vote at the Palm Coast Community Center were at the incorrect spot (not their voting precinct). Granted, there may have been confusion this year caused by some changed vot ing locations. The good news is that everyone was helped and directed to their proper precinct polling place. The clerk and assistant clerk handle voters with a multitude of abnormalities. The most com mon is identified above. Others include voters who failed to notify the Supervisor of Elections Office that they have moved (as required by regulations), voters whose

documentation does not match the SOE’s records, voters who are not registered, voters who bring someone to assist them without the proper forms completed, voters who bring their mail-in ballots to drop off (on Election Day they can only be dropped off at the Supervi sor’s Office), etc.

The precinct workers make every effort to ensure that everyone who is legally eligible to vote gets a bal lot. Sometimes there are language challenges, sometimes there are attitude challenges, and sometimes (most of the time, actually) it goes as planned.

If all precincts are as well run as well as Precinct 513, every Flagler County resident should rest easy, knowing that our elections are safe and their vote is as important to the Supervisor of Elections and her staff as it is to them.

The rules are available on the SOE’s website and go out in mailers along with sample ballots, yet there are hundreds of voters who don’t have a clue about voting guidelines. Please educate yourself on the regu lations and the candidates before the next Election Day. May God bless America.

STEVE CANFIELD Palm Coast

Why waste print real estate on home listings?

Dear Editor:

Every issue of the Observer has a 1/8-page or so article about the house that sold for the most dollars. My comment is, “Who cares!” I may be the oddball, but I sure don’t care what someone paid for that or any house. The facts that someone sold it, someone bought it and it was expensive mean nothing to me. Why does the paper regularly print this “news” item?

JESSE STONER Palm Coast

Editor’s note: Indicators like web traffic data show high reader inter est in our real estate section, but we hope readers uninterested in real estate will find plenty to read in the other sections of the newspaper.

Patrick J. Hartnett

Branch of military: U.S. Marine Corps

Dates of service: 1967-1969

Rank/occupation: Lance Corpo ral/Rifleman, Administration

Hometown: Santa Rosa, California

Patrick Hartnett had three years of college education when he en tered the Marines with the desire to be a commissioned officer, but due to an unfortunate knee injury, it didn’t work out. That didn’t stop the Marines from retaining him as an enlisted man. He of course was a rifleman first, but the Corps smartly recognized Hartnett’s administrative skills and assigned him to details at Camp Pendleton, Quantico, and the Pentagon. After his honorable service, he finished his degree at the University of California, San Diego, obtained his educator’s credentials at Irvine and taught school for 27 years. Hartnett has been visiting Palm Coast since 1978 and moved here in 2002. He has taught line dancing and world folk dancing to thousands since 1974. He enjoys fishing with his wife Linda. He’s been a member of American Legion Post 115 for eight years. This year, Hartnett walked over 500 miles and biked more than 2000 miles to support the Legion’s “100 Miles for Hope,” a campaign to improve wellness, while raising funds for the

Don’t let hearing loss ruin your holidays!

“If

Friedrich Hayek

“Road to Serfdom,” 1944

Publisher John Walsh, jwalsh@palmcoastobserver.com

Managing Editor Jonathan Simmons, jonathan@palmcoastobserver.com

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

Office Coordinator Bonnie Hamilton, bonnie@palmcoastobserver.com

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disabled children of veterans. Not bad for a Marine with bad knees.

NEED HELP WITH VETERAN SERVICES?

For information about benefits avail able to veterans and other support organizations 386-313-4014.

Every year around this time, the phone in our hearing center starts to ring with people calling. Some times it’s a frustrated patient, who has been sitting at the Thanksgiv ing table missing everything their grandchild has said or missed the punchline and said the wrong thing in front of their in-laws. Sometimes, it’s the adult child, who lives in another state and has come home for the festivities and suddenly notices their mother isn’t responding when they call her from

one of the most difficult situations to hear in, even if you have normal hearing. The holidays mean we are out and about more, going to par ties, shopping at bustling stores, and interacting with people we don’t see very often. All of those sit uations can bring to light a hearing loss that may have previously gone undetected, and also bring home the emotional toll of not being able to communicate with the special people in our lives. At best, hearing loss will cause some uncomfortable moments and at worst, it will alien ate you from your family. You aren’t alone! Thirty to thirty-five percent of adults between the ages of 65 and 75 years of age suffer from hear ing loss, and forty to fifty percent of adults 75 and older suffer from hearing loss. People with untreat ed hearing loss (those with hearing loss who do not wear hearing aids) experience a decreased quality of life. Untreated hearing loss has been linked to issues such as sad ness, depression, anxiety, paranoia, cognitive decline, and poor social relationships. One way of treating age-related hearing loss is with hearing aids. Today’s hearing aids are digital microcomputers that can automatically adjust to sound thousands of times per second, making speech comfortable and natural sounding. Hearing aids can improve communication with fam ily, friends, and co-workers, which can help maintain a high quality of life.

stand what they are saying? Are you embarrassed when you miss the joke? This is a great time to get your hearing checked, so you can fully participate in the holiday festivities. If you have normal hear ing, then you can feel at ease; if you don’t, you still have time to consid er all your options and do some thing for yourself and your family this holiday season. Give yourself the gift of good hearing and good health this holiday season- get your hearing tested!

across the room. The holidays are a time full of love, special moments... and lots and lots of noisy social sit uations! Noisy environments are

Do you struggle to understand people when you are at restaurants or parties? Do you get complaints from your family that the tv is too loud, but you still can’t under

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

Smash hit: FPC student on track for professional esports career

David Krol doesn’t expect to use the $15,000 esports scholarship he won at Full Sail University — he plans to go pro.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Flagler Palm Coast sophomore David Krol was awarded a $15,000 scholar ship at Full Sail University for win ning its high school TechFest esports tournament on Nov. 12.

But Krol does not expect to ever use the scholarship. Unlike most 15-year-olds, he knows exactly what he wants to do when he turns 18, and college is not part of the plan.

He wants to compete and stream his game performances of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

“My goal for the next two or three years is to be a career competitor for Smash and streaming on Twitch and

potentially uploading to YouTube,” he said. “In the future, by the time I’m 18, I’d like to hire an editor to post my streams.”

His said his parents have made his esports career possible.

“Without my parents, nothing would have happened,” he said. “I’m definitely very, very grateful. They drive me to really far away tourna ments. They want me to do what I love to do. I’ve proven to them that this is a viable option for a career.

In tournaments and streaming, I’ve made over $25,000 the last couple of years.”

Last month, Krol received a sponsorship from AITX Artificial Intelligence Technology Solutions robotics company to subsidize his Super Smash Bros. competitions. His $500-a-month salary pays for expenses.

“It’s a start,” he said.

He met the AITX people at a “Smash” tournament in New York they were sponsoring. He ended up beating the No. 1-ranked player in

New Jersey and the fourth-ranked player in New York.

Krol is well-known in Smash circles as TM7_ZAP, but he does not have a Panda Global Ranking, because he hasn’t entered enough in-person or “off-line” tournaments yet. Getting a ranking is his goal right now.

“I’ve only started to go to more off-line events recently,” he said. “I haven’t been ranked yet. I’ve beaten every person on the Central Florida rankings so far at least once.”

He competed in DreamHack Atlanta on Nov. 18-20, winning six of eight tournament sets to finish 25th out of about 450 competitors, despite breaking his controller in the car on the way up.

“It was an adventure playing on borrowed controllers,” he said.

Practicing in the car on the way to tournaments is part of his routine.

“I practice movements, combos, neutrals, practice being in an advan tage state, being in a disadvantaged

state,” he said.

Next month, his fellow airline pas sengers can watch him practice his movements as he flies to Los Angeles for the Panda Cup Finale, Dec. 16-18.

AITX is sending an esports team of four Smash players, including Krol, to the tournament.

AITX is paying for his flight. If he does well in major tournaments, he’ll receive contract upgrades from the company, he said.

Krol has beaten a few play ers ranked among the top 50 in the world. He won tournaments in Val dosta, Georgia, and St. Augustine and finished second at Fall Gator LAN in Gainesville. He’s also won online tournaments and finished third out of 800 competitors in a Coinbox tournament.

OTHERS PLACE AT FULL SAIL

Krol was not the only FPC student to place at the Full Sail University Smash tournament. Fletcher Carroll and A.J. Davis, who has since trans

“Without my parents, nothing would have happened. I’m definitely very, very grateful. I’ve proven to them that this is a viable option for a career. In tournaments and streaming, I’ve made over $25,000 the last couple of years.”

DAVID KROL, FPC sophomore

ferred to Matanzas, were among four players who tied for fifth place. There were over 170 high school students competing in the tournaments.

FPC math teacher John Mastropi erro, who leads FPC’s esports club, accompanied the students to the tournament. Krol, Carroll and Davis have all participated in the club.

The club meets two hours a day after school. They play Overwatch 2 and Valorant in addition to Smash. Mastropierro said there are 20 to 30 students in the club but most don’t come every day.

Three students won scholarships at the Full Sail tournament. Full col lege scholarships for esports players are becoming more common with more college establishing esports teams, Mastropierro said.

Krol said he is training the other FPC club members as much as he can. He said he recently introduced Davis and his little brother to tour naments.

Smash is the only video game Krol competes in, but his tournament career started when he was about 8 years old playing table tennis and chess. He has about 30 trophies from chess tournaments, and he met Gar ry Kasparov when the Russian chess grandmaster hosted a chess tourna ment in Brooklyn, New York.

Krol also plays piano and has per formed at recitals. He said the hours and hours of practice he’s put in for chess, table tennis and piano has helped prepare him for his current avocation.

Krol’s family moved to Palm Coast from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in August, 2021. They chose Florida over Colorado, he said, because there are a lot of Smash tournaments in Florida and Georgia.

“When I tell parents that colleges are looking for students to play video games and are giving them full rides and paying for their room and board, they don’t really believe me that it’s actually happening,” Mastropierro said. “Right now I’m talking with a college recruiter at Keiser and another in Alabama. The opportu nities are out there.”

Courtesy photo

David Krol holds up his $15,000 scholarship check after winning the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate tournament at Full Sail University.

David Krol's sponsorship photo from AITX

Destination Daytona sold to new owners

OBSERVER STAFF

The Rossmeyer family has sold Bruce Rossmeyer’s Day tona Harley-Davidson and Destination Daytona at 1635 N. U.S. 1 to Teddy Morse of the Ed Morse Automotive Group after 28 years in businesss, a press release announced on Thursday, Nov. 17.

“Our kids continued Bruce’s dream after his death, and I am very proud of them,” principal owner Sandy Rossmeyer said. “I am also extremely pleased that we are selling to a buyer who knew Bruce, and that Mr. Morse is thrilled to carry on the Daytona Harley-David son legacy. The time to sell is when you are on top, and my children and our loyal team of associates have certainly kept us there and will work hard to help Teddy build his own Harley-Davidson legacy.”

The dealership will operate under the name Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson.

BIZ BUZZ

Destination Daytona will con tinue to operate with its exist ing tenants — the Clarion Inn Ormond Beach, the 35-000 square-foot Rock’N’Roll event pavilion and the Saints and Sinners Pub.

The Ed Morse Automotive Group, which has been fam ily-owned for over 75 years and is headquartered in Delray Beach, owns 36 dealerships, 70 automotive franchises, 40 locations and 18 automotive and motorcycle brands.

The New Smyrna HarleyDavidson dealership will be closing permanently on Nov. 30.

The purchase also includes the Main Street retail store at 510 Main St. Bridge, which

next to Pink Narcissus, Redline Athletics will work to prepare athletes to become more resilient.

will be called Teddy Morse’s Daytona Harley-Davidson Main St.

“After our purchase of three Harley-Davidson deal erships and a retail store in Texas recently, we had the opportunity to make this deal in Ormond Beach, and it was too exciting to pass up,” said Teddy Morse, chairman and CEO of Ed Morse Automotive Group. “We loved the fact that this amazing entertainment campus is in our home state and that the Rossmeyer fam ily wanted it to go to another family-owned business. We look forward to enhancing and expanding this incredible property.”

One

Elements of Design is a fur niture and lighting showroom that also offers gifts, home decor, and design consulting services.

Located in the same building as Guitar Center, Elements of Design at One Daytona will be the second Elements of Design location in Volusia County.

“Our One Daytona campus is growing, and we’re thrilled to welcome two new tenants with unique services that increase

our offerings to our customers,” said Roxanne Ribakoff, presi dent of One Daytona. “2022 has been a fantastic year for us. In May, we announced the open ing of Costco Wholesale, a top international retailer. Now we’re excited to welcome local busi ness owners to One Daytona.”

Costco Wholesale will include a separate fuel station and will occupy approximately 150,000 square feet of the north west section of the property adjacent to the CMX Daytona Luxury Theatres. The Costco Wholesale location is slated to open by 2024.

Courtesy photo

Bruce Rossmeyer’s Daytona Harley-Davidson and Destination Daytona

YOUR NEIGHBORS

Rockin’ in the USA

Celebrate America brought locals out to the Florida Agricultural Museum to honor veterans on Nov. 19 despite a rainy forecast. The event, organized by Flagler Broadcasting and rescheduled from Nov. 12 due to Hurricane Nicole, featured a

kids’ zone, radio-controlled aerobatics, live music by Spanky the Band and presenta tions by Rep. Paul Renner and local elected officials.

–JAKE MONTGOMERY

Janet Laitlaw and Sharon Davis dance to Spanky the Band.

Elise Emberley, Morgan Emberley and Ava Emberley eat treats from a food truck.

Travis Irvine and Olivia Irvine watch the K9 presentation.

Deputy Marcus Dawson and his K9, Baro, demonstrate Baro’s skills.

Brandon Smith (Uncle Sam) steals some food from Riley Fehrenhamp and Jael Wilder.

Photos by Jake Montgomery

LOCAL EVENTS

FRIDAY, NOV. 25

CELTIC ANGELS CHRISTMAS

When: 7 p.m. Where: Flagler Auditorium, 5500 S.R. 100, Palm Coast Details: The Celtic Angels and Knights are coming to town to spread Irish holiday cheer. Enjoy live music and dance by the Trinity En semble. Tickets $44-$54 for adults; $5 for children under 18. Call 386-437-7547.

64TH-ANNUAL GASLIGHT PARADE

When: 7 p.m. Where: East Granada Boule vard, Ormond Beach Details: The Volusia Region Antique Automobile Club of America, with the city of Ormond Beach and local mer chants, have announced the return of the Gaslight Parade. The parade will begin at The Casements and proceed east on East Granada Boulevard before turning right on At lantic Avenue and continuing south to the city limit. Free.

SATURDAY, NOV. 26

64TH-ANNUAL BIRTHPLACE OF SPEED ANTIQUE CAR SHOW

When: 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Fortunato Park, 2 John Anderson Drive, Ormond Beach Details: See the car entries from the Gaslight Parade, and other antique cars, up close. An award presentation will take place at 3 p.m. Free.

SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Where: Downtown Ormond Beach district, 44 W. Granada Blvd., Ormond Beach Details: Restaurants, shops and galleries will be offering special deals and activities. Grab a map and start any

where along Granada Boule vard between A1A and Orchard Street. There will be also be a Santa Scavenger Hunt. For in formation, call 386-492-2938 or email Becky@ormondmain street.com.

SECOND-ANNUAL HOLIDAY MARKET

When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Where: Flagler Fairgrounds, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell Details: The market will feature music, a gift-wrapping table, food trucks and an appearance from Santa. Free. Call 618-972-3950.

ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY When: 6-9 p.m. Where: Central Park, 975 Central Ave., Palm Coast Details: Palm Coast’s annual tree lighting ceremony is also the first night of Fantasy Lights around the lake. Join Santa Claus, the City Council and the Rotary Club of Flagler County. There will be crafts for children and an opportu nity to write letters to Santa. The 50 animated light dis plays will continue from 6:309 p.m. daily through Dec. 30. Free. Visit flaglerrotary.org

TUESDAY, NOV. 29

NATIVE FLOWER GARDENING When: 10 a.m. Where: UF/IFAS Extension, 150 Sawgrass Road, Bunnell Details: Learn which native flowering plants you can grow in your garden. Tickets cost $15 and include native flower seeds. Call 386-437-7464 or visit bit.ly/3Vt1bs7.

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30

MEETING ON BOOK BANNING When: 6:30 p.m. Where: Flagler County Public Library, 2500 Palm Coast Parkway NW, Palm Coast Details: Scott Rooke, of the Brevard Public Schools District Book Reconsideration workgroup, will speak at the gathering of the Atlantic Coast

Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Free. All are welcome.

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN When: 7 p.m. Where: Flagler Auditorium, 5500 State Route 100, Palm Coast

Details: Ready to rock? Gary Mullen, David Brockett, Billy Moffatt, Malcolm Gentles and Jon Halliwell will have you dancing in the aisles in this tribute to Queen. Tickets cost $50-$60. Call 386-437-7547.

THURSDAY, DEC. 1 FREE DIABETES

SCREENING

When: 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Where: Ormond Beach Library, 31 S. Beach St., Or mond Beach Details: The Ormond Beach Lions Club will provide free diabetes screening during the Ormond Beach Farmer’s Market. No fasting required and results are immediate.

ONGOING EXERCISES FOR THE MATURING BODY

When: 10:30 a.m. Mondays and Thursdays Where: First Baptist Church Of Palm Coast, 6050 Palm Coast Parkway, Palm Coast Details: Presented by Synergy Senior Fitness, attend upbeat classes with Senior Fitness Specialist Artie Gardella. Insurances that cover fitness accepted, or a donation for those with no coverage. Visit Synergyseniorfitness.com.

MOAS EXHIBITIONS

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon day through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday Where: Museum of Arts and Sciences, 352 S. Nova Road, Daytona Beach Details: MOAS has the follow ing shows on display: ”Epiph any! Visions of Art” (through Nov. 27); “Minor Masterpiec es: Porcelain Painted Scenes from the Collection”; and “Tech Savvy: Home Technol ogy from 1890s to the 1990s.”

PALM COAST

United Methodist Church Welcoming all. Worshiping One.

LAKE DISSTON Palm Coast photographer Vicki Payne is an awardwinning nature and landscape photographer born in the Czech Republic.

She grew up in a small, quiet town and was always close to nature, according to a press release by Ormond Beach gallery Art Spotlight.

“She was fascinated with the different seasons and the changing light that comes with them,” the press release states. “Capturing images of

light has been her passion since she took her first steps into photography.” Payne is a member of the Casements Camera Club and the St. Augustine Camera Club. Her work is shown as far away as Boulder, Colorado, but currently, her photography is on display at Art Spotlight, located at 67 W. Granada Blvd., where she was recently a featured artist of the week.

Sweet success

Matanzas’ Gazzoli wins state golf championship; Seabreeze, Cobb place 3rd.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Matanzas High School golfer Alex ander Gazzoli had her clubs. Coach Brandie Alred had a bag of marsh mallows. That turned out to be the winning combination at the Class 2A state girls golf championships.

In her third trip to state, Gaz zoli shot 2-under par 140 to win the individual title at the two-day tour nament, Nov. 15-16 at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-theHills.

“It feels pretty good,” the junior said a day after winning the cham pionship. “I wish we could have gone as a team, but I’m glad that I was able to go. Yeah, I’m really happy.”

Seabreeze junior Amelia Cobb tied for third place individually and led the Sandcrabs to a third-place team finish. Plantation American Heritage won the championship for the third consecutive year. Ponte Vedra was second.

Cobb, who also finished third last

"I bribed her with marshmallows for every birdie. After (the triple bogey), I gave her two marshmallows. I changed the conversation to calm her down. She came back and parred the next hole. She kept it together. Alexandra is one of the most competitive people I know."

BRANDIE ALRED, Matanzas girls golf coach

year, shot 72-72—144. She had four birdies over a six-hole stretch on the front nine during day 2.

“I think Amelia had a little more confidence coming into the tourna ment this year,” Seabreeze girls golf coach Cory Flickinger said. “Her goal was to win it. She was happy with the results, but she has high hopes to win it next year.”

The Sandcrabs shot 657 as a team with sophomore Riley Fletcher (7677—153) finishing 12th, senior Han nah Ashton (85-84—169) tied for 39th and freshman Taylor Dytkowski (96, 96—192) 72nd.

Girls soccer: Seabreeze blanks FPC 3-0

The Sandcrabs put the game away with two second-half goals.

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

A year ago almost to the day, Seabreeze’s girls soccer team defeated Flagler Palm Coast for the first time in 11 sea sons. On Saturday, Nov. 19, the Sandcrabs made it three in a row against the Bulldogs with a 3-0 victory at FPC’s Sal Campanella Stadium.

“They’re the best team in the area,” FPC coach Pete Hald said. “Last year they were the best team in the (Five Star Conference).”

All three recent Seabreeze victories over the Bulldogs were shutouts. The Sandcrabs won 5-0 on Nov. 20, 2021, and 4-0 on Jan. 11, 2022, in a Five Star Conference tournament game.

“Their possession was bet ter than us,” Hald said after last week’s game. “We didn’t win a lot of soccer balls that could have put the possession to our favor.”

Freshman Olivia Chase gave Seabreeze a 1-0 lead in the first half with her first high school goal.

“I was really happy to see her get her first goal,” Seabreeze coach Eli Freidus said. “She’s going to be an exceptional player.”

Kylie Watson put Seabreeze up 2-0 with 26:46 left in the game. Annabel Thistle made it 3-0 eight minutes later. Goal keeper Avery Dellinger saved five shots to earn the shutout.

Seabreeze improved to 1-3, while FPC fell to 2-2. The

Sandcrabs opened the season with losses to Fleming Island, a regional finalist last season; Creekside, the 2022 Class 7A state champion; and Ponte Vedra, the 2021 Class 5A state champ.

“We have a tough schedule,” Freidus said. “I might have overdone it.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier, with games against Bartram Trail (Nov. 28) and Oviedo (Nov. 30) up next. Both teams are undefeated.

Bartram won the Class 7A state championship in 2020 and 2021.

Trying to keep up with Pon te Vedra in a 4-0 loss on Nov. 18 yielded positive results against FPC, Freidus said.

“Our speed of play was good. Ponte Vedra was so fast and so strong, I felt like it helped us today,” Freidus said.

Watson, who also had an assist, led a dominant mid

field, while Morgan Long helped spearhead the defense.

“Our back three played great. Our midfield possessed the ball the whole game,” Frei dus said.

The Bulldogs, down 1-0 at halftime while playing against the wind, felt like they were in fairly good position head ing into the second half, Hald said.

“We played well enough to make it a game,” he said. “Then we gave up that goal early in the second half. We got beat to the ball a lot.”

The Bulldogs were coming off a 7-0 win over Ridge Com munity on Nov. 18. Senior Emma Swearingen had three goals and freshman Isabella Kummernes had two goals in the win. FPC hosts Atlantic on Monday, Nov. 28.

FPC defeated Seabreeze in the JV game, 3-1.

Gazzoli placed in the top three for the third year in a row. As a freshman, she placed third. Last year, she was the runner-up. She shot 68-72 this year to win by one stroke over Ameri can Heritage’s Katherine Schaefer.

Gazzoli led by three strokes after the first day, when she hit 17 greens in regulation and made three bird ies. On day 2, she was 3-under after 11 holes and then ran into trouble on the par-4 12th hole. She hit her tee shot into the palmettos, took an unplayable lie and wound up with a triple bogey.

“She didn’t have a good line,” Alred said. “She just had to punch it out. Then she missed the green and hit into the bunker.”

Gazzoli said she can’t remember the last time she had a triple bogey.

“In a tournament, I know I’ve done it, obviously, but I can’t really remember. It was kind of just a weird hole in general. It shocked me.”

Alred knew exactly what to do. She fed Gazzoli marshmallows.

“I bribed her with marshmal lows for every birdie,” the Matan

ALEXANDRA GAZZOLI

zas girls golf coach said. “After that hole, I gave her two marshmallows. I changed the conversation to calm her down. I said, ‘Look, nobody tended the flag (on the green).’ She came back and parred the next hole. She kept it together. Alexandra is one of the most competitive people I know.”

Gazzoli bogeyed No. 17 and made par on 18. Schaefer, who played three holes behind Gazzoli, was one stroke back going into her final hole. Gaz zoli and Alred played cards and kept refreshing the live scoring app while they waited for Schaefer to finish. The American Heritage junior made par on No. 18 to finish a stroke back.

“Alexandra is Alexandra,” Alred said of the tournament-tested golfer, who rarely gets excited. “But she did have a big smile on her face.”

“It was a little suspenseful,” Gaz zoli said of the wait. “But I had a good feeling. It was disappointing the way I finished, because I was 3 under through 11 and then I tripled, and I was like, ‘Oh, my.’ They changed (No. 12) from a par 5 to a 4. And the funny thing is, I birdied it the first day, so it wasn’t like I had any problems with it. It was a bad drive. I mean, let’s just say if I parred the hole, I would have been 5-under overall.”

Gazzoli will take a break until the SALLY tournament (South Atlantic Women’s Amateur Championship) Jan. 4-7 at Oceanside Country Club in Ormond Beach. She said she’ll pin the state championship medal in front of all her other medals on the corkboard in her room.

“I’m glad that I was able to (win) it, and hopefully I can do it again next year,” she said. “So that’s kind of what I’m looking forward to now.”

Undermanned Pirates top ’Dogs

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

It had been a rough start to the season for the Matanzas boys soccer team.

And things didn’t seem to be getting any better at Flagler Palm Coast on Monday, Nov. 21, when Sebastian Bernardi converted a penalty kick in the first half to tie the score at 1-1, and then was handed a red card for taunting.

Bernardi was trying to rec reate the celebration moves of French soccer star Kylian Mbappé, Matanzas coach Beto Aguilar said.

“I told him, high school is different. High school ref erees are a different breed,” Aguilar said.

But despite playing a man down the rest of the way, the Pirates rallied for a 2-1 vic tory for their first win of the season.

“I knew the team had it in them,” Aguilar said. “We went down a player against New Smyrna Beach and we didn’t handle it very well. The boys lost their composure. It was good to see tonight that we still played our style and pulled out the win. We told the players, we have to play with discipline and passion. If we put those two together, good things will happen.”

The Pirates scored the goahead goal with 6:46 remain ing off a free kick as sopho more defender Sebastian

DeLeon got free just outside the 6-yard box and headed in Nedas Jaronis’ cross.

“I saw I lost my mark, and I just went for it,” DeLeon said.

“It was a big confidence boost for me. The whole game I was just beating myself up.”

Senior goalkeeper Ben Kopach made several key saves for Matanzas (1-2-1). None were bigger than his tipping a shot over the crossbar with 57 seconds left. Eight seconds later, he grabbed a ball in the air amid a crowd of players.

“When you’re up 2-1 against your rival team, especially if you’re a man down, you have to be on your game,” Kopach said.

“We forced the best out of Ben Kopach,” said FPC coach

Ramtin Amiri. “He made some wonderful saves.”

The Bulldogs fell to 3-1 after getting out to their best start since 2014.

“I feel like the man down gave them an extra bit of life,” Amiri said. “Our boys pressed hard. They knew they left it all on the field, and they weren’t upset.”

Aron Binkley gave the Bull dogs a 1-0 lead off a penalty kick in the first half. A few minutes later, Bernardi scored the first goal of the season for the Pirates, who could not find the net against New Smyrna Beach, Taylor or DeLand.

“Last year, we had three guys who could create (Joseph ‘Fuji’ Powell, Nick Ferrer and Andrew Alvarez). This year we have to make our opportuni ties count,” Aguilar said.

This is the second season in a row that FPC and Matanzas will be meeting just once. Last

Courtesy photo

Matanzas girls golf coach Brandie Alred and state champ Alexandra Gazzoli

Seabreeze golfers Riley Fletcher, Hannah Howell, Hannah Ashton, Amelia Cobb and Taylor Dytkowski. The Sandcrabs placed third at the Class 2A state girls golf championships.

File photo

Matanzas’ Alexandra Gazzoli plays a high school match at Palm Harbor Golf Club.

“It feels pretty good. I wish we could have gone as a team, but I’m glad that I was able to go. Yeah, I’m really happy.”

Sebastian DeLeon’s header off a free kick with 6:46 left gave the Pirates a 2-1 win.

Photo by Brent Woronoff

Seabreeze’s Kylie Watson (1) battles FPC’s Savannah O’Grady (14).

The Sandcrabs won their third straight against the Bulldogs.

"A red card is unlucky. You might not agree with the refs, you're going to be disgruntled, but you can't let it consume you. This shows they can be successful even if they go down a man."

BETO AGUILAR, Matanzas boys soccer coach

FPC's Jason Moberly looks upfield.

Orchard saves best for last

Two in a row

Seabreeze’s Sarah Randolph scored a game-high 13 points in the 33-24 win at Matanzas as the Sandcrabs’ girls basketball team won its second straight to improve to 2-1. Randolph scored 18 points in Seabreeze’s 55-39 win at Calvary Christian on Nov. 15.

Mainland improved to 1-1 with a 65-33 win over Deltona. The Bucs opened the season with a 72-43 loss to Montverde Academy, the third-ranked team in the nation, according to MaxPreps.

FPC won its first two games with an average margin of victory of 38.5 points. Brynn Gifford led the Bulldogs with 17 points in their 60-23 win over DeLand. Alexandria Connerton had 15 points in FPC’s 50-10 thrashing of Altamonte Christian. The Bulldogs amassed 30 steals in the game.

Titans’ growth

The Flagler Titans Pop Warner Football and Cheer League grew from 120 participants last year to 208 this year. All six football teams played in the first round of the East Coast Conference playoffs, with four teams advancing and three going to the championship game.

The 11U team won the ECC championship. All five cheer teams won in the ECC competition and are moving on to regionals Nov. 25-27.

His prelim times were better than his final times in his previous two events. Now, this was his final swim. He had qualified sixth in prelim, and he wanted to finish in the top five.

He wound up placing fourth with a personal record 59.01 seconds.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been that stressed my whole life,” Orchard said. “The adrenaline probably helped me.”

Orchard also placed sixth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.00 seconds earlier in the evening.

“He did really good. I’m really proud of him,” Seabreeze coach Samantha Fabulich said.

Seabreeze sophomore Mackenzie O’Keefe also got onto the podium with an A final finish. O’Keefe place eighth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:00.34. She also placed 11th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 59.69.

“She came out really well, and she’s only going to get better,” Fabu lich said. “She is probably one of the hardest workers I’ve seen, along with Caleb, but she does it with the big gest smile on her face every time.”

Orchard also swam the breast stroke leg in the 200-yard medley relay and helped the Sandcrabs reach the B final and 15th overall with a time of 1:45.16. Martin Montalvo led off with the backstroke, Dante DiPietro swam the butterfly and Cole Long swam the freestyle leg with his best split of the year, at 24.01 seconds.

“We knew we weren’t going to do

“I don’t think I’ve ever been that stressed my whole life. The adrenaline probably helped me.”

CALEB

Courtesy photos

Caleb Orchard with Seabreeze coaches Samantha Fabulich and Garrett Klayer

Matanzas basketball player Grace Norris thriving after hip surgery

Matanzas girls basketball player Grace Norris did not want to miss her junior season last year, so she held off hip surgery to repair cartilage until after the season.

She underwent physical therapy and played through the pain. She said her doctor told her “it would be a good idea” to have the surgery sooner. Her parents didn’t try to change her mind.

“They knew they couldn’t keep me away (from the basketball court) either,” she said.

Norris seems to be at full strength this year. She has scored nearly half of the Pirates’ points through their first three games.

After scoring 10 points in a 33-24 loss to Seabreeze on Thursday, Nov. 17, the senior guard was averaging 11.3 points per game. As a team, Matanzas (0-3) was averaging 23.3 points before visiting St. Joseph Academy on Tuesday, Nov. 22.

well in that relay, but we were trying to get in the top 16, and we were able to get 15th,” Orchard said.

Montalvo also swam in the 100 backstroke and finished 19th, with a time of 56.70.

Freshman Addie Smurdon finished 21st in the girls 200 free (2:05.23) and 20th in the 100 free (56.52).

Orchard dropped 1.53 seconds from his regional time in the 100 breaststroke. While he was slower in the 50 free final than he was in his prelim at 21.78, he improved his breaststroke time from 59.41 in pre lims.

He set personal records in both events despite the meet getting moved back a week because of Hur ricane Nicole, disrupting the swim mers’ tapering schedules.

“He was under a minute (in the breaststroke), which is really impres sive,” Fabulich said. “It’s amazing

what he does not being a year-round swimmer and training for honestly about two months between light ning days and the hurricanes keeping us out of the pool. That’s his selling point, to tell a college coach, ‘I only train two months a year.’ It shows how much potential he has.”

Orchard said he was joining yearround swim club Hydro4 starting Thanksgiving week with the goal of walking onto a college swim team next year.

“People who finished first (at state) were so far ahead of the sec ond- and third-place swimmers,” he said. “That was really motivational to me, that I need to put in a lot more work. It just shows you, people who win, this is their whole life. If I want to continue in the sport and be able to compete with them, I’ve got to train all year round.”

“Grace has stepped up to the plate,” said Matanzas coach Brittany Marts. “We moved her to point guard this year, so she has the ball in her hands a lot more. She plays with heart. You can see her passion.”

Norris said she is adjusting to the new position. Through three games she converted 15 of 19 (79%) from the free throw line and 5 of 14 from the 3-point arc.

“It’s a new skillset,” she said of playing point guard. “I’m getting used to it. So far, I enjoy it.”

“When we tied them, we knew we had to win this year,” Kopach said.

disgruntled, but you can’t let it consume you. This shows they can be successful even if they go down a man. They played with better connection than they did against New Smyrna.”

FPC, meanwhile, won’t dwell on the loss.

“This was just another

game,” Amiri said. “We have Pine Ridge next (Nov. 29 on the road). We’ll work hard over the Thanksgiving break and try to get our fourth win of the sea son.”

Matanzas will host districtrival Menendez on Nov. 29.

Photo by Brent Woronoff

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SIDE LINES

BRENT WORONOFF ASSOCIATE EDITOR

ORCHARD

Mackenzie O'Keefe, far left, finished eighth in the 200 free. The sophomore also placed 11th in the 100 butterfly.

year, they tied 2-2 at Matanzas.

To do that, they had to over come FPC’s man advantage.

“A red card is unlucky,” Agu ilar said. “You might not agree with the refs, you’re going to be

On to regionals

MICHELE MEYERS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

In a game of lead changes and touchdowns by players wearing No. 1, the Mainland Buccaneers finally pulled ahead of the Rock ledge Raiders in the last two minutes of the Region 3-3S semifinal to win 16-14 on Saturday, Nov. 20.

The Bucs are now one win away from the state semifinals. Mainland (9-3) heads to Jensen Beach (10-2) on Friday, Nov. 25 for the region final.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

“We push these kids day in and day out,” Mainland head coach Tra vis Roland said. “We practice every situation under the sun within the confines of the rules and things we are trying to do. These kids respond. I’m so proud of them. I’m so proud of this Mainland family. Not many times the away team can out-attend the home team. That shows the Mainland spirit and the Buc way. That’s what we keep talking about. The Buc way showed up tonight. It’s never easy, but the Buc way can always prove itself good when we show up. We are going to come out ready to play against Jensen.”

touchdowns each. Mainland edged the Raiders with a 31-yard field goal by Jacob Gettman.

Rockledge’s defense attempted to smother Creecy’s running game. Creecy responded with two touch down passes to Harrell.

Cornerback Drayden Wood sealed the win after diving for an inter ception with less than two minutes remaining in the game. Creecy fol lowed up with a pass to Harrell, who drove the ball within 10 yards of the end zone.

“It feels great,” wide receiver Har rell said. “Great team win. We fought hard. We were down a couple times and came back, made plays. Coach would give me the ball and I’m just doing my thing. This was the num ber one team in our bracket for our region. We played hard and fought. We play Jensen Beach next. A tough team. We are ready to see them. We will prepare for them next week and take a win. Everybody needs to come in focused and not underestimate anybody.”

Mainland principal Joseph Castelli was all smiles at the end of the game.

“They are just amazing,” he said. “Great group of guys. Great group of

“We push these kids day in and day out. We practice every situation under the sun within the confines of the rules and things we are trying to do. These kids respond. I’m so proud of them. I’m so proud of this Mainland family. Not many times the away team can outattend the home team. That shows the Mainland spirit and the Buc way.’’

Photos by Michele Meyers

Kicker Jacob Gettman knocks down a 31-yard field goal to give Mainland a 10-7 advantage before heading into the half.

Mainland quarterback Damarcus Creecy maneuvers through traffic.

Mainland wide receiver Ajai Harrell scored two touch downs in the Region 3-3S semifinal game against Rockledge.

Gavin Greathouse kicks for the Buccaneers after halftime during the game against Rockledge.

TRAVIS ROLAND, head coach, Mainland football

The Buccaneers bumped the Raiders in a tight 16-14 win at the Region 3-3S semifinal. Mainland will face Jensen Beach on Friday, Nov. 25.

Hammock Beach once again has top seller

house in Hammock Beach was the top real estate transaction for the week of Oct. 14-20 in Flagler County in the Multiple Listing Service. Richard and Val erie Waite, of Palm Coast, sold 355 Ocean Crest Drive to Richard O’Brien, of Winter Garden, for $1,655,000. Built in 2013, the house is a 4/3.5 and has a fireplace, swim ming pool, elevator and 3,991 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $1.2 million.

WAYNE GRANT REAL ESTATE EDITOR

Condos

Michael Swaim, of Palm Coast, sold 20 Porto Mar, Unit 601, to George and Melody Henley, of Jacksonville, for $1.22 million. Built in 2004, the condo is a 4/3.5 and has 1,950 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $1.11 million.

Gert and Christa Goetze, of Bur scheid, Germany, sold 8 Viscaya Drive, Unit 104, to George and Mindy Page, of Palm Coast, for $440,000. Built in 1996, the condo is a 2/2 and has 1,837 square feet.

Gregory and Denise Bard, of Bun nell, sold 4600 Moody Blvd. E., Unit 14G, to Karl and Mary Drob nick, of Bunnell, for $190,000. Built in 2005, the condo is a 2/2 and has 971 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $90,000.

Cochran Place

Laura Gilvary sold 808 N. Central Ave. to KAP Real Estate Holdings LL, of Nowthen, Minnesota, for $510,000. Built in 2001, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,041 square feet.

Fuquay Michael and Katherine Dinnebeil, of Toms River, New Jersey, sold

1420 S. Ocean Shore Blvd. to Kira Slipak, of Bardonia, New York, and Gloria and Craig Barton, of Palm Coast, for $950,000. Built in 2006, the house is a 4/3 and has 2,203 square feet.

Grand Reserve and Golf Club

D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 3 Pinnacle Place to Huyen Le and Michael Myers, of Bunnell, for $322,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,714 square feet.

D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 6 Pinnacle Place to Eric and Hawana Dennison, of Bun nell, for $314,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,665 square feet.

Hammock Beach

Shmuel and Tema Kissin, of Palm Coast, sold 301 Ocean Crest Drive to Ahmed Bayoumi and Rania Karam-Bayoumi, of Palm Coast, for $1.25 million. Built in 2005, the house is a 4/3.5 and has a fireplace, elevator and 4,222 square feet. It sold in 2017 for $624,500.

Hammock Dunes

Richard and Joanmarie Ryan, of Mt. Dora, sold 12 Via Roma to Duane Knapp, as trustee, for $825,000. Built in 1999, the house is a 4/3 and

has a swimming pool and 2,605 square feet.

Hidden Lakes Ross and Carol Dietzschold, of Tampa, sold 191 Arena Lake Drive to Colleen Miller, of Palm Coast, for $485,000. Built in 2012, the house is a 4/2 and has 1,748 square feet.

Indian Trails Robert and Linda Elliott sold 40 Bird of Paradise Drive to John and Jennifer Paulston, of Palm Coast, for $355,000. Built in 1998, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,512 square feet. It sold in 2008 for $135,000.

Lambert Avenue Jared Easton and Asgari Lipshy, of Flagler Beach, sold 1351 Lambert Ave. to Ryan Hannold and Melisse Luke, of Hummelstown, Penn sylvania, for $1,395,000. Built in 2016, the house is a 4/3.5 and has a fireplace, swimming pool, elevator and 3,387 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $1,095,000.

Lehigh Woods D.R. Horton Inc. Jacksonville, of St. Johns, sold 1 Renshaw Place to Ken neth and Pamela Newbaker, of Palm Coast, for $440,990. Built in 2022, the house is a 3/3 and has 2,363 square feet.

Lincoln Heights

Hazel Rolston, of Baldwin, New York, sold 1207 Sherman St. to Dey anni Evans, of Bunnell, for $90,000. Built in 1988, the house is a 2/1 and has 768 square feet. It sold in 2015 for $20,000.

Matanzas Woods

Gerald and Diana Labriola, of Frostburg, Maryland, sold 52 Leidel Drive to Mildred Gear and Audrey MacDowall, of Palm Coast, for $390,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2 and has 2,192 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $325,000.

Not in Subdivision

Michael Armstrong and Geneva Sluder, of Beavercreek, Ohio, sold 5 Wellington Drive to Paul Kostenko, of Palm Coast, for $380,000. Built in 1998, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 2,107 square feet.

Osprey Point Benny and Mary Shippey sold 65 Hawks Lane to DEW Properties LLC, of El Portal, for $830,000. Built in 2016, the house is a 4/3 and has a swimming pool and 2,462 square feet.

Palm Harbor Robert Ripley, of Palm Coast, sold

94 Frontier Drive to Kimberly Reilly and Brett Borden, of Palm Coast, for $320,000. Built in 1986, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,708 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $167,500.

Andy Swanson, of Rockledge, sold 21 Coral Reef Court S. to Home Buyers of North East Florida LLC, of Palm Coast, for $260,000. Built in 1982, the house is a 4/3 and has a fireplace, swimming pool and 1,992 square feet. It sold in 1982 for $119,100.

Pine Lakes PID Group LLC, of Palm Coast, sold 7 Weiss Place to Peter Ojeda, of Palm Coast, for $400,000. Built in 1994, the house is a 3/2 and has a swimming pool and 1,801 square feet. It sold in March for $270,000.

The Reserve Brent and Ciara Boate sold 2 Humming Bird Circle to Ivor and Anita Wigham, of Flagler Beach, for $785,000. Built in 2014, the house is a 3/3.5 and has a swimming pool and 3,250 square feet. It sold in 2020 for $500,000.

Seminole Woods

Byron Saxman, individually and as trustee, sold 23 Seaman Trail E. to Gabriele Bush, of Palm Coast, for $$290,000. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,357 square feet.

William Corrigan, of Palm Coast, sold 11 Slipper Flower Path E. to Gideon and Jordyn Bloyer, of Palm Coast, for $248,450. Built in 2005, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,408 square feet.

Wynnfield

Anthony Monopoli sold 1 Wills Place to Brenda and Gary Gerow, of Palm Coast, for $280,000. Built in 1995, the house is a 3/2 and has a fireplace and 1,750 square feet.

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

celebrity cipher

Courtesy photo

The home with the highest selling price has four bedrooms, three bathrooms, a half-bath and a swimming pool.

MEN IN BLACK by Morton J. Mendelson. Edited by Ross Trudeau

By Luis Campos

Top transaction is in Hunter’s Ridge: $575,000

Ahouse in Hunter’s Ridge was the top real estate transaction in Ormond Beach and Ormond-bythe-Sea for the week of Oct. 9-15 in the Multiple Listing Service. Roy and Sheryl Gray, of Ormond Beach, sold 5 Staghound Look to Donna Dubois, of Ormond Beach, for $575,000. Built in 1995, the house is a 5/3 and has 2,429 square feet.

$489,900. Built in 2006, the house is a 3/2.5 and has 1,993 square feet. It sold in 2009 for $190,000.

ORMOND BEACH

Chelsea Place

Peter and Denise Baxter, of Water looville, United Kingdom, sold 505 Chelsea Place Ave. to Lawrence and Mary Rush, of Ormond Beach, for

Forest Hills

Eric McKinney, of Ormond Beach, sold 320 Thackery Road to Mary Ann Vespa, of Ormond Beach, for $260,000. Built in 1960, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,140 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $155,000.

Hunter’s Ridge Joshua Munson and Tiffany Sieg, of Ormond Beach, sold 46 Pergola Place to Laurence Gribble and Lil lian French, of Ormond Beach, for $405,000. Built in 2011, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,686 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $225,000.

Benjamin and Madison Ranew, of Daytona Beach, sold 170 Per gola Place to Alexander and Linda Embry, of Ormond Beach, for $375,000. Built in 2016, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,537 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $237,000.

Not in Subdivision

Andrew and Lekisha Kozachuk, of Ormond Beach, sold 405 Calle Grande St. to Travis and Kaycee Hawkins, of Ormond Beach, for $290,000. Built in 1974, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,277 square feet.

Pineland

Ling Copeland, of Naperville, Illinois, sold 274 Sunset Point Drive to Trang Do, of Knoxville, Tennes see, for $390,000. Built in 2021, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,690 square feet. It sold in 2021 for $319,500.

Rio Vista

Paul and Kathleen Mishuk sold 697 Buena Vista Ave. to Brandon and Morgan Davis, of Ormond Beach, for $350,999. Built in 1973, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,470 square feet. It sold in 2018 for $193,500.

Treasure Oaks Charles and Debora Cambria, of Lake Lure, North Carolina, sold 106 Treasure Lane to Thomas Asch, of Woodside, New York, for $550,000. Built in 1964, the house is a 3/3

and has a swimming pool and 2,163 square feet.

The Village Jeanette Harter, of Warrensburg, Missouri, sold 894 Willow Run to Zachary and Meghan Ignoffo, of Ormond Beach, for $315,000. Built in 1973, the house is a 3/2 and has 1,840 square feet. It sold in 2019 for $221,000.

ORMOND-BY-THE-SEA

CCH BIZ LLC sold 71 Brooks Drive to Frank Russo, of Ormond Beach, for $348,500. Built in 1951, the house is a 2/1 and has 922 square feet.

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

WAYNE

Courtesy photo

The top seller for the week is located on a cul-de-sac in Hunter’s Ridge.

The house at 505 Chelsea Place Ave. sold for $489,900.

The house at 170 Pergola Place sold for $375,000.

10

IN RE: ESTATE OF RALPH T. ANDERSON A/K/A RALPH THOMAS ANDERSON A/K/A RALPH ANDERSON, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of RALPH T. ANDERSON A/K/A RALPH THOMAS ANDERSON A/K/A RALPH ANDER SON, deceased, whose date of death was September 18, 2022, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is P. O. Box 6043, DeLand, FL 32721-6043. The names and addresses of the personal repre sentative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served, must file their claims with this court ON OR BE FORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AF TER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLI CATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or de mands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NO TICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PE RIOD SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED The date of first publication of this notice is: November 24, 2022. Signed on this 16th day of November, 2022.

/s/ Carol A. Anderson

CAROL A. ANDERSON A/K/A CAROL ANN ANDERSON Personal Representative 5300 S. Atlantic Ave., Unit 20307 New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169

/s/ ROBERT KIT KOREY, ESQUIRE Attorney for Personal Representative Florida Bar No. 147787 ROBERT KIT KOREY, P. A. 595 W. Granada Blvd., Suite A Ormond Beach, FL 32174 Telephone: (386) 677-3431 Email: Kit@koreylawpa.com Secondary Email: Michele@koreylawpa.com Nov. 24; Dec. 1, 2022 22-00132I

FIRST

INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION File No. 2022 12478 PRDL Division: 10 IN RE: ESTATE OF JANE E. SCHELL, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of JANE E. SCHELL, deceased, whose date of death was August 31, 2022, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is P. O. Box 6043, DeLand, FL 32721-6043. The names and addresses of the personal repre sentative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served, must file their claims with this court ON OR BE FORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AF TER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLI CATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or de mands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NO TICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PE RIOD SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED The date of first publication of this notice is: November 24, 2022. Signed on this day of 11/17/2022. DEREK MOHR

Personal Representative 10815 Main St. Clarence, NY 14031 Heidi S. Webb Attorney for Personal Representative Florida Bar No. 73958 Law Office of Heidi S. Webb 140 South Beach Street, Suite 310 Daytona Beach, Florida 32114 Telephone: (386) 257-3332 Email: heidi@heidiwebb.com Secondary Email: filing@heidiwebb.com Nov. 24; Dec. 1, 2022 22-00131I

FIRST INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE DIVISION File No. 2022 12763 PRDL Division: 10 IN RE: ESTATE OF KATIE ELIZABETH PHIPPS-MCMAKIN, Deceased.

The administration of the estate of KA TIE ELIZABETH PHIPPS-MCMAKIN, deceased, whose date of death was August 5, 2022, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the address of which is 101 N. Alabama Ave., DeLand, FL 32724. The names and addresses of the personal representative and the personal representative’s attorney are set forth below.

All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate, on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served, must file their claims with this court ON OR BE FORE THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AF TER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLI CATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or de mands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NO TICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN FLORIDA STATUTES SECTION 733.702 WILL BE FOREVER BARRED.

NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PE RIOD SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED

The date of first publication of this notice is: November 24, 2022.

Signed on this day of 11/18/2022.

BILLY JOE MCMAKIN

Personal Representative 817 S. Flamingo Dr. Holly Hill, FL 32117 Heidi S. Webb Attorney for Personal Representative Florida Bar No. 73958 Law Office of Heidi S. Webb 140 South Beach Street, Ste. 310 Daytona Beach, FL 32114 Telephone: (386) 257-3332 Email: heidi@heidiwebb.com Secondary Email: filing@heidiwebb.com Nov. 24; Dec. 1, 2022 22-00134I

NOTICE OF SALE PURSUANT TO CHAPTER 45 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE SEVENTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT IN AND FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA CIVIL ACTION CASE NO.: 2021 11530 CIDL

REVERSE MORTGAGE FUNDING LLC, Plaintiff, vs. THE UNKNOWN HEIRS, DEVISEES, GRANTEES, ASSIGNEES, LIENORS, CREDITORS, TRUSTEES, OR OTHER CLAIMANTS CLAIMING BY, THROUGH, UNDER, OR AGAINST SANDRA LEE PHILLIPS, DECEASED, et al, Defendant(s).

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN Pursu ant to a Final Judgment of Foreclosure dated October 13, 2022, and entered in Case No. 2021 11530 CIDL of the Circuit Court of the Seventh Judicial Circuit in and for Volusia County, Flor ida in which Reverse Mortgage Funding LLC, is the Plaintiff and The Unknown Heirs, Devisees, Grantees, Assignees, Lienors, Creditors, Trustees, or other Claimants claiming by, through, under, or against Sandra Lee Phillips, deceased, United States of America Acting through Commissioner of Housing and Urban Development, Sheryl Murchison, are de fendants, the Volusia County Clerk of the Circuit Court will sell to the highest and best bidder for cash in/on online at electronically/online at http://www. volusia.realforeclose.com, Volusia County, Florida at 11:00AM EST on the Decem ber 15, 2022 the following described property as set forth in said Final Judg ment of Foreclosure:

LOT 11, BLOCK F, MAGNOLIA SHORES, (JOHNSON’S SUBDIVI SION), A SUBDIVISION ACCORD ING TO MAP IN MAP BOOK 23, PAGE 111, PUBLIC RECORDS OF VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA. A/K/A 2223 MAGNOLIA DR DE LAND FL 32724

Any person claiming an interest in the surplus from the sale, if any, other than the property owner as of the date of the Lis Pendens must file a claim before the Clerk reports the surplus as unclaimed.

ATTENTION PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES:

If you are a person with a disability who needs an accommodation in order to participate in this proceeding, you are entitled, at no cost to you, to the provi sion of certain assistance. Please contact Court Administration, 125 E. Orange Ave., St. 300, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, 386-257-6096, within 2 days of your receipt of this notice. If you are hear ing impaired, call 1-800-955-8771; if you are voice impaired, call 1-800-955-8770.

THIS IS NOT A COURT INFOR MATION LINE. To file response please contact Volusia County Clerk of Court, 101 N. Alabama Ave., DeLand, Fl 32724, Tel: (386) 736-5907.

Dated this 15 day of November, 2022.

ALBERTELLI LAW P. O. Box 23028 Tampa, FL 33623 Tel: (813) 221-4743 Fax: (813) 221-9171 eService: servealaw@albertellilaw.com By: /s/ Nathan Gryglewicz Florida Bar #762121 Nathan Gryglewicz, Esq. CT - 21-005637 Nov. 24; Dec. 1, 2022 22-00133I

SECOND INSERTION NOTICE TO CREDITORS

IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR VOLUSIA COUNTY, FLORIDA PROBATE

DIVISION

File No. 2022-12734-PRDL Division 10 Division Probate IN RE: ESTATE OF THERESA ROSE KUHN

The ancillary administration of the estate of THERESA ROSE KUHN, deceased, whose date of death was May 06, 2022, and whose social security number is XXXXX8477, is pending in the Circuit Court for Volusia County, Florida, Probate Division, the ad dress of which is 101 North Alabama Av enue, DeLand, Florida 32724. The names and addresses of the personal representa tive and the personal representative’s attor ney are set forth below. All creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or demands against decedent’s estate on whom a copy of this notice is required to be served must file their claims with this court WITHIN THE LATER OF 3 MONTHS AFTER THE TIME OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NOTICE OR 30 DAYS AFTER THE DATE OF SERVICE OF A COPY OF THIS NOTICE ON THEM.

All other creditors of the decedent and other persons having claims or de mands against decedent’s estate must file their claims with this court WITHIN 3 MONTHS AFTER THE DATE OF THE FIRST PUBLICATION OF THIS NO TICE.

ALL CLAIMS NOT FILED WITHIN THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH IN SECTION 733.702 OF THE FLORIDA PROBATE CODE WILL BE FOREVER BARRED. NOTWITHSTANDING THE TIME PERIODS SET FORTH ABOVE, ANY CLAIM FILED TWO (2) YEARS OR MORE AFTER THE DECEDENT’S DATE OF DEATH IS BARRED. The date of first publication of this notice is November 17, 2022.

Personal Representative: Theresa Lapinski 120 Dolphin Point Drive Beaufort, SC 29907

Attorney for Personal Representative: Aaron J. Tracy, Esq. Florida Bar Number: 0940151 435 12th Street West, Ste. 209 Bradenton, Florida 34205 Telephone: (941) 405-9156 Fax: (941) 296-7657

E-Mail: aaron@tracy-law.com November 17, 24, 2022 22-00130I

you are interested. Thank you! (904) 669-9428