bserver O PALM COAST
YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
NEWS
SPORTS
NEIGHBORHOOD
Miracle Porter is officially the top goal-scorer in Matanzas history.
Holiday at the Beach: Santa parachutes onto the sand, and the parade begins! PAGE 17
PAGE 11
OUR TOWN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 2014
Life sentence for Niemi; plus: Hospital, emergency resources train. PAGE 3
west wing By Jonathan Simmons | News Editor
Next phase now? City Hall could be expedited Community Center upgrade would cost more than City Hall expansion.
Courtesy photo
Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members Sue Fray and Myra Valentine
Palm Coast may build a $2.5 million community wing at its planned City Hall this coming year instead of in 2019, and delay work on the Community Center on Palm Coast Parkway until the
2017-2018 fiscal year. The change in construction schedules would save the city money, city staff told City Council members at a Dec. 9 City Council workshop, and would
mean that community events and City Council meetings now held in the Community Center could continue there through-
CITY / PAGE 4
+ AKA donates to children’s charity Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority members delivered holiday gifts to the Community Based Partnership for Children office. Each year, as a part of their “service to all mankind” mission and compassion, members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority’s Chi Delta Omega Chapter of Palm Coast volunteer to help make sure kids in foster care have gifts and a new outfit to wear to school after the winter break to make their Christmas special.
+ Around town: Christmas cheer — Home Instead Senior Care has partnered with three local Walgreens, Flagler County’s Meals on Wheels, and the Golden Sands Girl Scout Council to host Be A Santa To A Senior, to help seniors who are lonely or in need have a happy Christmas. Ornaments have been placed on trees with the names and gift requests. A wrapping party will be Dec. 18. The gifts will be brought to the Meals on Wheels office on Dec. 22, and they will be delivered to the seniors. For more information, contact Joyce Fenstermaker at 9861931. — Gods Family Bible Church is giving away 180 free freshly cut trees to any families in need. They will be given away Sunday, Dec. 14, immediately after the 10 a.m. service. Visit godsfamilybiblechurch. com.
SEE OUR TOWN / PAGE 2
Jonathan Simmons
County Commissioners Barbara Revels, Frank Meeker and Nate McLaughlin celebrate the opening of a new facility, which will give a safe place for estranged parents to exchange their children for visitations.
banner day By Jonathan Simmons | News Editor
Sally’s Safe Haven The facility is funded by a $400,00 domestic violence grant. In the past, when a Flagler County parent was barred from unsupervised visits with their child, the two would either have to travel to Volusia County to see each other in a court-approved visitation facility, or not visit at all. Parents who swapped children for visits but had a history of domestic violence with each other had used the flag pole outside the county courthouse as a makeshift neutral meeting place, because there wasn’t any better option within the county. That’s about to change. With a ribbon-cutting cere-
mony Monday, Dec. 8, attended by officials from the county and the cities of Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and Bunnell, Flagler County opened Sally’s Safe Haven, a roughly 2,000-square-foot visitation facility near the corner of State Road 100 and U.S. 1 in Bunnell. It will begin opening three days per week in the coming month, Children’s Home Society of Florida Associate Executive Director Kim Pleasants said, and will probably host about six
SEE SALLY’S / PAGE 5
Flagler County Sheriff’s Office
Corrections Division Director Becky Quintieri and Flagler County Deputy Administrator Sally Sherman
FULL STOP
Jonathan Simmons | News Editor
Red light camera program could be suspended The city may also go before a judge to see if its contract with ATS is still valid. Palm Coast may suspend its red light camera program in light of a court ruling that prohibits third-party vendors — like camera company American Traffic Solutions — from issuing uniform traffic citations, requiring that local governments do that work themselves. In a conference call Monday with ATS, Palm Coast City Manager Jim Landon said at a Dec. 9 City Council workshop, ATS proposed that Palm Coast take over the UTCs, which the city has been paying ATS to handle. “And I said, ‘Over my dead body,’” Landon said. “And as soon as I said that — they didn’t like to hear that — the rest of the conversation was not quite as congenial. Because they don’t like the other two options. They don’t like not sending out UTCs, and they don’t like suspending the entire program.” UTCs are sent out to vehicle owners who fail to pay for their red light camera violations. They carry a $264 fine. The court ruling, coming from the Fourth District Court of Appeal, has been stayed pending appeal, leaving municipalities unsure of how to comply with the now-unsettled law. At a City Council workshop two weeks ago, the council discussed the possibility of going to a circuit court judge for a declaration on whether the city’s contract with ATS remains valid. For now, the city’s other options, laid out by Landon at the Dec. 9 meeting, would be to suspend the program entirely; continue the program and have city staff deal with UTCs; or continue what the city is doing now — issuing $158 violation
SEE PROMISE / PAGE 4
INDEX Calendar............ 26 Cops Corner...........8
Crossword........... 30 Dawsey...............11 .
Diversions.......... 31 Neighborhood..... 17
Real Estate......... 28 Sports................ 11
Vol. 5, No. 45 One section