- November 19, 2024
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County commissioners and staff donned hard hats, grabbed ropes and pulled, bringing the first of 10 billboards the county purchased crashing down.
Flagler County bought the 10 billboards — spread out along four scenic miles of Oceanshore Boulevard — to get rid of them and restore the view along the scenic byway.
"We have achieved a milestone here today, and it's over two decades in the making," County Commission Chairman George Hanns said, standing in front of the billboard and a pile of hard hats. "The A1A Coastal and Scenic Byway is such a treasure along our coastline. We need to do everything we can to restore the natural scenery of the area.”
Beachside resident Steve Hart was one of about 50 people attending the ceremony. “I’d like to see them pull them all down,” he said. “This is just a good start.”
Representatives of Scenic Byway Advocates and Scenic America — a national organization fighting visual pollution — commended the Commission for getting rid of visual blight.
Four states, Scenic America past president Bill Brinton said, are entirely billboard free: Hawaii, Maine, Vermont and Alaska.
Brinton quoted former CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt’s words in an address to Scenic America, in which Kuralt had referenced Sir Walter Raleigh’s report to Queen Elizabeth the New World, caling Roanoke Island “the goodliest land under the cope of heaven.”
“We have to believe that place by place, mile by mile, we can preserve scenic America and even reclaim ugly America,“ Brinton said, quoting Kuralt, “but the way it’s going to have to be done is place by place, and one place after another by the people who live there.”
“Today,” Brinton said, “Flagler County is 'the goodliest land under the cope of heaven.'”
Brinton said the rest of the state should heed the county's example. "They’re providing the leadership and the goals of what you should be — we should all be — up in Duval or wherever, or maybe especially in Miami, should be looking to accomplish," he said.
To see a video of the billboard coming down, click here.
