THE HAMMOCK
Observer YOU. YOUR NEIGHBORS. YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD.
VOLUME 1, NO. 14
Flagler Beach continues centennial celebrations PAGE 1B
FREE ON NEWSSTANDS | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2025
Do we need metal detectors at school? One parent says yes. Flagler Schools has scheduled a workshop about metal detectors on campuses. PAGE 3A
Why is Boston County projects to address flooding on First Avenue Whaler leaving? Local officials ask Brunswick to sit down for an ‘exit interview.’ PAGE 7A INSIDE TOP SALE
Hammock Dunes condo tops sales list at almost $3.5M PAGE 4B
DANCE SELECTED
Flagler Commission Chair Dance selected as 1st Vice President of NEFRC PAGE 7A
INDEX
Business..................... PAGE 3B Calendar..................... PAGE 2B Cops Corner................PAGE 2A Crossword.................. PAGE 8B Letters........................ PAGE 9A Public Notices............ PAGE 5C Sports......................... PAGE 6B Real Estate................. PAGE 4B
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Flagler County held an open house for residents of The Hammock to review three major projects planned for the area. SIERRA WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
Resurfacing for Jungle Hut Road. The expansion of the Mala Compra Canal. Fixing drainage issues on First Avenue. Residents who live in The Hammock near Mala Compra Road got a chance to talk to county engineers about these three and other projects planned for the area, on Sept. 30, at an open house event at the Mala Compra Community Center. The project to fix the drainage issues on First Avenue was especially important to residents. County engineer Hamid Tabassian said the county did a previous project to regrade First Avenue, but had to design the project around the budget that was available in 2020, when the county was initially working on it. The budget at the time, he said, did not provide enough to do what is being proposed now. The county is at 30% completion for design, and representatives from the design teams for all three projects were at the open house
CMT engineer Robby Schoonmaker talking to Hammock residents Janet Sullivan and Peter Wentworth about the flooding on First Avenue. Photos by Sierra Williams
to answer questions and receive comments from residents who live around the project areas. “So we are tweaking this and finalizing it,” Tabassian said. “We’re going to make sure that the job, what is being designed and what will be constructed, is going to work.” Robby Schoonmaker, a project engineer with design firm CMT, said the First Avenue project is still in its conceptual phase. The plan so far is to place a deeper swale to hold back more water and then address the grading. As it is, the swales are not holding enough water, which is then going onto people’s properties and staying. First Avenue resident Joyce Dobbs said the county should have “done it right to begin with.” Her home is in the center of First Avenue, so it receives flooding from First Avenue resident Joyce Dobbs both ends of the roadway. and her friend Joyce Skaff talk to a de“So when it rains, it’s like a sign firm representative about floodwaterfall coming down my driveing on First Avenue in The Hammock. way,” Dobbs said.
Dobbs said “it depends on who’s doing the designing as to whether it’s going to work or not,” but that she appreciated the open house and the ability to see what is being planned. “I feel like they listened,” she said. Resident Dennis Wilson said he was not convinced the design plans will fix the problem. The road was raised on First Avenue two years ago with the initial project, and he said he would like to see the road lowered. He doesn’t understand how no one saw the problems in the first project design two years ago. “To see it went through permitting, planning and everything, and nobody realized that water — water doesn’t flow uphill,” he said. Project manager Richard Zion said it could be another year and a half to two years before construction is completed. Flagler County Commissioner Greg Hansen, The Hammock’s county representative, attended
the open house to talk to residents. The three projects are ones he said he has personally pushed for with the county. He said the outcome of the original First Avenue project is “painful.” “We got it all funded, and we paid for it, and we built it, and it didn’t work,” Hansen said. Now, though, the county has the funding to redesign it. “We scraped the money together, and we’re redesigning it, and that’s what’s going on now. Now my next project is to get enough money to, whatever the fix is, to pay for it.” Zion said the community has provided a lot of good information for the county to address all the issues. “We have a lot of support from the residents,” he said. “These folks are good neighbors and they’ve been honestly wonderful to work with and to meet and get to know.” Email sierra@observerlocalnews. com.
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