- January 18, 2025
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Flagler County will shift its Senior Center Congregate Dining Program from its 17-year home in the Wickline Center building in Flagler Beach to the Church on the Rock in Bunnell, trading the rent-free space at the Wickline Center for $3,000-per-month rent at the church.
County commissioners approved the move in a 4-1 vote at the commission's Dec. 14 meeting, with Commissioner Andy Dance dissenting.
"What we have here is a failure to communicate, yet again."
— RICK BELHUMEUR, Flagler Beach city commissioner
Flagler County Health and Human Services Director Joyce Bishop said at the Dec. 14 commission meeting that while the county hasn't been paying rent at the city of Flagler Beach's Wickline Center, its arrangement with the city requires the county to pay for renovations and repairs.
"Yes, there’s been no specific rent that we’ve paid, but the amount that we’ve paid ... would be equal to a rent," Bishop said.
The new lease at the church, located on U.S. 1, would be for 15 years, with the monthly rent increasing by $100 every year. The county would also pay $300 per month for utilities.
The center serves 40 or 50 people a day, Bishop said, and its current location in Flagler Beach has meant that residents from the county's west side have found it difficult to make it there, since it would mean a lengthy drive or bus ride.
Bishop and County Administrator Jerry Cameron said the county has been under the impression that Flagler Beach is dissatisfied with the county's use of the property.
"This is something that came to my attention early when I got here, that Flagler Beach was not satisfied with the current intergovernmental [agreement] that we had," Cameron said. "Proposed documents went back and forth between the county attorney and the city attorney. The last modification that we had would turn the Wickline over to Flagler Beach entirely. ... The initiative to begin this search for another location originally came from Flagler Beach."
But county staff's assertion that the city wanted the county out were quickly contradicted by Flagler Beach City Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, who, speaking during the meeting, said that the city had been surprised the previous Thursday to hear that the county was planning to end its longterm arrangement with the city.
"It’s been there 17 years. What we have here is a failure to communicate, yet again," Belhumeur said. "We find out on Thursday that you guys are voting on a new location the following Monday — two business days, after a 17-year relationship. That's just — it’s a sad day for me, that our relationship is that weak."
Cameron said he'd had multiple conversations with former Flagler Beach City Manager Larry Newsom, who has since died, about the county finding a different arrangement for the meal program.
"We fully thought … that we were complying with the wishes of the government of the city of Flagler Beach," Cameron said.
County commissioners Hansen and O'Brien also said they'd been under the impression — Hansen from conversations with Newsom, and O'Brien from Flagler Beach City Commission meetings — that the city wanted the county to find another arrangement.
County commissioner Andy Dance asked how the county's staff had investigated potential alternative locations for the program.
Heidi Petito, the county's interim chief of staff, said the county hadn't gone out to bid and hadn't drawn up any alternative options for because staff didn't find anything other than the church that they believed would meet the county's needs.
Dance said he would have liked to see some numbers comparing the church to other options — even if the presentation also noted why the other options were less favored. Transparency is particularly important when government bodies get involved in public-private partnerships, he said.
"We have to be transparent in that we are getting our value and it’s fair to all concerned," Dance said. "I just would have liked to have seen in the agenda packet, as part of that comparison, that we’ve looked here and we’ve come to this conclusion."
The commission approved the move from the Wickline Center to the church 4-1, with Dance dissenting.
