- March 4, 2025
Mad Dogs Flag Football President Jarrod Maxwell does not blame R-Section residents who complain about the lights at Ralph Carter Park.
“I wouldn’t want that in my backyard either,” he told the Observer. “But that’s a city issue. Not a Mad Dogs issue.”
The issue could be solved, Maxwell said, if the city approves a new sports complex so leagues in the future would no longer have to use neighborhood parks for practices and games.
After the City Council agreed on Feb. 25 to revisit the Ralph Carter Park issues at a future workshop, Palm Coast Acting City Manager Lauren Johnston told council members the city needs a plan for a sports complex.
“I will tell you that we do need a sports complex,” Johnston said. “I mean, we need to plan for one, somewhere, somehow. We need to actively start doing that. It's called out in the parks master plan as well, and just that we're a growing community, and we're seeing more kids in organized youth sports. So, trying to identify a plan and a funding mechanism for that is important as well.”
The City Council held a workshop on Ralph Carter Park a year ago after residents complained. Since then, the city spent $12,000 for shields to direct the lighting down onto the fields. The city also acquired a permit from the school district to allow parents to park at Rymfire Elementary School for Mad Dogs games, and not along Rymfire Drive.
Charles Gambaro, who was appointed to the City Council on Oct. 1, long after the last workshop, requested the new workshop, calling it a quality of life issue.
“I stood out there in (a resident’s) driveway, and that lightning is not OK. It’s absolutely not OK,” Gambaro said. “The other thing that's not OK is the amount of cars that were across the street with the kids running across. I know that might be a parent's issue, because parking is available at Rymfire Elementary. We've got to lay this issue flat and lay all the facts out so we can address issues.”
Gambaro said a third issue is the noise level at 7, 8 o’clock at night. He said he is looking for a “happy medium” to solve some of the residents' problems.
Mayor Mike Norris and Vice Mayor Theresa Pontieri made it clear they do not support closing the park to youth sports leagues while there is a shortage of other options in the city. Norris said a city analysis showed that about 80% of the people who live in the vicinity of the park moved in after the lights were installed in 2009.
Pontieri said she isn’t even in favor of another discussion. After Norris said he doesn’t know what else the city can do short of shutting the park down, Pontieri made her position clear.
I would say over my dead body that'll happen. I’m not going to be that extreme. But I will be very outspoken about (Ralph Carter Park) being shut down.
— THERESA PONTIERI
“I would say over my dead body that'll happen. I’m not going to be that extreme,” she said. “But I will be very outspoken about that being shut down. That's where too many kids go and play sports and stay out of trouble and have a good outlet. Team sports saves so many kids and are so good for our community. I will tell you, being on council for the last few years, and this being a repetitive issue, we have taken steps to alleviate the light issue. … We also shortened the time that people are allowed out there. We've reduced those hours at the request of a couple residents.”
But Pontieri and Johnston both warned Mad Dogs families that if parents don’t starting utilizing the elementary school parking lot, the permit could be restricted or even withdrawn.
Maxwell said the school parking lot isn’t big enough for all of the cars.
The Mad Dogs have three seasons — January to March, April to June and August to October — for a total of 36 weeks a year, Maxwell said. This spring, for the first time, the league will play its games on Friday nights at Wadsworth Park, a county facility, instead of during the day on Saturdays at Ralph Carter Park. It will continue to run practices at Ralph Carter in the evenings unter the lights Monday to Thursday.
“We’ve never had Friday night lights before,” Maxwell said of the move to Wadsworth. “But we won’t be able to do it every season.”
The big picture, Maxwell said, is the city is long past due for a sports complex.
“I’ve asked four mayors ago. We’re still not any closer than we were 15 years ago when I asked for a new sports complex,” he said. “We can’t hold the tournaments we want to hold here. We’re losing out on money. (A sports complex) would be a win, win for everybody.”
