- November 1, 2024
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Palm Coast has a dog park at Holland Park. But should it add another? And, if so, should the new one be at the Lehigh Trailhead, as city staff have proposed?
“This doesn’t strike me as the best place for a southern dog park, but it is certainly a possible location,” City Councilman Bob Cuff said after interim City Manager Beau Falgout mentioned the location as an option during a City Council workshop Oct. 30.
The city is proposing to spend $246,914, including $90,000 in grant money from the Florida Department of Transportation, to design renovations at the trailhead, including a trailhead and restroom building, a lighted parking lot, community gardens and site furnishings. Adding a dog park to the design process would cost an additional $15,000.
City staff have not yet determined a construction cost.
Palm Coast is preparing to award $34,456 in cultural arts grants for the year, but the wording of one of the grant proposals gave council members pause: The Palm Coast United Methodist Church described the purpose of its concert series, for which it is seeking a $2,640 city grant, as “outreach ministry,” raising concerns that government funding of it could violate separation of church and state, or could be seen as violating separation of church and state.
“One of the grant applicants described their grants as an ‘outreach ministry’; I don’t want to end up in a position where the city is spending city funds to support a religious ministry,” City Councilman Vincent Lyon said. Lyon is an attorney.
He added that he believed that the content of the program likely isn’t the issue — as long as the church doesn’t use the concert series as an opportunity to invite people to religious services — but that wording in the grant application could be a problem.
Councilman Bob Cuff, also an attorney, said it was his understanding that the application would be for community concerts like the one the church will be holding Dec. 1-2 presenting George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” the 1742 oratorio that has become a Christmas concert staple.
City Attorney Bill Reischmann questioned whether the concert series could really be described as having a “religious purpose.” The series also includes chamber music concerts.
Lyon didn’t think so.
“I don’t want someone to come back and say ‘Hey, city of Palm Coast, you’ve been supporting one religion over another by ... spending your money to support religious outreach,’” he said. “I don’t think it’s religion outreach that they’re proposing ... but they seem to think that it is.”
City staff proposed advising grant applicants in the future to simply explain clearly what they would be doing, rather than applying a label, like “outreach ministry,” that would imply a religious purpose to events that could be secular in nature.
