- October 31, 2024
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Palm Coast’s city government is preparing to redirect some city Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money over to the Flagler County government administration to help the county — which, unlike the city, has social services staff — tackle local homelessness.
The idea came out of a recent Citizens Advisory Task Force meeting, City Planner Jose Papa told Palm Coast City Council members at a July 30 council workshop.
“The current idea is to ... really get the dollars out into the public and into the community as quickly as possible,” Papa said.
The city is expecting $487,895 in CDBG money this year. The money has historically been spent on projects like home repair aid for low-income homeowners.
In addition to partnering with the county, Papa said, the city is hoping to seek the services of a grant director to ensure it is doing all it can to secure grants.
In other business at the workshop, the city is planning to place code enforcement liens on two vacant properties, at 79 Rolling Sands Drive and 20 Woodstone Lane.
“It’s a step that we rarely get to as a city,” City Attorney Bill Reischmann told the council. “It is never the city’s desire to place liens on property for code enforcement, but sometimes that has to happen. ... Code Enforcement is not about penalizing; penalizing is a tool that sometimes is necessary.”
The city is also proposing to buy a 3.87-acre parcel at 13 Commerce Blvd. to expand its wastewater treatment capabilities. The purchase would cost an estimated $265,500.
“We have a wastewater collection system improvement project that is going to increase our capacity,” Utility Director Richard Adams said. “It’s going to be diverting flow over to Wastewater Treatment Plant 2. . ... We’re in need of a site for a master pump station.”
The parcel, he said, is bordered on two sides by city stormwater ditches.
