PALM COAST
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
CRT CHANNELS MLK PAGE 12
VOLUME 13, NO. 2
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2022
Garbage contract Waste hauling rates to rise this summer, services to decrease PAGE 5 INSIDE BARBOSA DECIDES
Palm Coast City Councilman Victor Barbosa drops bid for County Commission, will instead run for reelection PAGE 3
BUS DRIVER DUI
School bus driver arrested for DUI, child neglect for driving drunk with students on board. PAGE 8
RESTOCKING FISH
Whitney Laboratory releases 100,000 juvenile redfish into local waters PAGE 10
GARGIULO, 83
Tom Gargiulo, Flagler County’s ‘art father,’ dies at 83 PAGE 11
AT YOUR OWN RISK
Flagler Beach to reduce lifeguard coverage this summer PAGE 9
Q+A LENHART
“Yes, everything’s in good order. Your vote will be counted.” PAGE 3
Q+A DENNIE
“Homelessness isn’t the ragged person that you think it is.” PAGE 6
Bevan hired Denise Bevan is Palm Coast’s new city manager PAGE 5
YOUR TOWN
Photo byMike Cavaliere
BLUE VALENTINES Fourth-grade students Sofia Popova and Charlotte Read enjoyed cotton candy on Feb. 10 at Old Kings Elementary School’s annual Sweetheart Daughter Dance.
Green Lion remains king — for now The statue is small in stature, but it looks proud after the city heard how much support the Green Lion has from the community.
City Council reverses course on Green Lion Cafe, will not solicit proposals for golf restaurant JONATHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
Dozens of locals packed the seats, lined the walls and spilled over into an overflow space at a Palm Coast City Council meeting Feb. 15 to urge the council to work out a new lease with the Green Lion Cafe on the city-owned Palm Harbor Golf Club. The council heard them, and has scrapped plans to end its contract with the restaurant, owned by the Marlow family of Flagler Beach.
“I’d like to be the first one to apologize to the Marlows,” Councilman Victor Barbosa said at the meeting. “You should be proud of what you built here, being the number one restaurant.” The Green Lion Cafe is rated as the number one restaurant in Palm Coast on Tripadvisor.com. The council, a week ago, had directed city staff to end the existing
Best in state, FPC’s best ever Buchanan dedicates state title to her mom BRENT WORONOFF STAFF WRITER
In past years, Annie Buchanan’s mother was always in attendance at her daughter’s weightlifting events, just as she had been for Annie’s three older siblings. “She cooked breakfast for us a couple of times at state,” said Flagler Palm Coast weightlifting coach Duane Hagstrom. “Even when she was using a walker, she still came.” Buchanan’s mother lost her battles with cancer in September, but when Annie won two state championships on Feb. 10 to add to the title she won last year, she knew her SEE STRONGEST PAGE 18
Photo by Brent Woronoff
Annie Buchanan completes her clean and jerk at the Five Star meet earlier this season.
Photo by Brian McMillan
lease and solicit proposals for a new company to run the golf course restaurant, to bring it up to market rate rent. Calling the lease a “sweetheart deal” that was “robbing” taxpayers, councilmen had said the restaurant’s $600-per-month rent was too low. But the Marlow family had invested $100,000 to renovate the citySEE GREEN PAGE 4
BRIEFS Health Department prepares for COVID’s shift to endemic The COVID-19 pandemic in Flagler County is fading, with case numbers and hospitalizations dropping. “Cases are significantly decreasing,” Florida Department of Health in Flagler County Health Officer Bob Snyder said on Flagler Broadcasting’s “Free For All Friday” program on Jan. 11. The week of Jan. 14, there were 210 cases per day, but that has dropped to an average of 58. “Positivity rate, hospital admissions for COVID, school district cases, demand for testing — all trending downward, in the right direction,” Snyder added. There have been no new outbreaks at nursing homes or assisted living facilities, he added, and a total of 78,244 Flagler County residents have been vaccinated. The health department is preparing to shift back to normal operations. “We are ready for this to be over,” Snyder said.