Flagler officials press state delegation for road, drainage and storm-resilience funding

FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — County and municipal officials asked the Flagler County legislative delegation on Feb. 1 for state funding to advance a set of local infrastructure and storm‑resiliency projects, stressing local matching contributions and project readiness.

The requests included three priorities from the Flagler County Board of Commissioners: resurfacing County Road 304 and multiple bridge improvements (the county described the CR 304 corridor as a “critical East‑West road”), construction of the Black Branch North drainage system and disaster‑resilience staging sites. County Commissioner and board chair Andy Dance told the delegation the CR 304 request was the largest and that the Black Branch drainage work “will help alleviate drainage issues” near a future National Guard site. Dance said the county’s CR 304 request was a $5,000,000 request and the Black Branch item an additional $2,600,000, and that the staging‑site request was $548,000 with $126,000 in local match.

The City of Palm Coast presented three resiliency priorities the city described as stormwater and traffic projects. Mayor Mike DeRosa asked the delegation for $300,000 to help build a stormwater park linked to Fire Station 23 (the city said it would match $200,000); a $30,000,000 request for Old Kings Road Winding Phase 2 Alpha with about $6,000,000 estimated just for design (the city said design would use impact‑fee revenue but did not specify a cash match for the full request); and a $500,000 stormwater project for the Woodlands subdivision for which the city reported a $5,500,000 local match.

Flagler Beach officials asked for funding to bring the city’s wastewater plant into compliance with state reuse standards tied to prior state legislation. Vice chair Rick Bellheimer said the city’s top request was support for design and construction of a reverse‑osmosis treatment system, describing an estimated $3,000,000 project of which the city would provide half; Bellheimer said the city was pursuing design completion in one year and construction the following year. He also described a separate $3,000,000 resiliency berm project for which the city was pursuing competitive grants and would similarly match state support dollar‑for‑dollar.

Elected officials and staff frequently emphasized that projects with local “skin in the game” are more competitive for legislative appropriations. Senator Leake said he prefers projects with local match and urged proposers to show a 50% local contribution when possible. "One of the things that I like to see...is each of the requesters have skin in the game," he told the room.

Why it matters: Flagler officials said the work targets aging roads, chronic flooding and limited staging areas for disaster response — issues local leaders say have immediate operational and public‑safety implications. Delegation members responded that showing local commitment and breaking large projects into phased funding requests can improve the proposals’ chances at the state level.

Looking ahead: Delegation members encouraged cities and the county to pursue state grants and other nonlegislative funding sources in parallel with direct appropriation requests and to provide precise match figures and phased budgets when returning to Tallahassee.