Galtronics to launch pilot program

After months of delays in product design and construction, Galtronics Telemetry Inc. will launch its pilot program in November.

by Andrew O’Brien | Staff Writer

Galtronics Telemetry Inc. has begun production on its smart-grid energy device, symHome Energy Management System. In early November, the company will start a 100-home pilot program to test its new device, but it hasn’t been an easy road to reach this point.

Last April, the pilot program was estimated to include about 500 homes. Graydon Parsons, president of Galtronics Telemetry Inc., said that because of the economy, the program was scaled back.

“We’ve been optimizing the system to make sure we can have the  costs as low as possible and comply with all the requirements,” Parsons said.

The product will likely go live to the public beginning in January 2011 and will cost $399.

Are jobs on the horizon?

Galtronics Telemetry was lured to Palm Coast through business and ‘green’ incentives after the company predicted it would create 40 jobs in three years.

“The city of Palm Coast laid out an attractive incentive plan and their initiatives in being a ‘green’ city lines up well with what we are doing, “ Galtronics Telemetry Vice President Sean Lafferty said.

Though the company currently employs seven people, Lafferty expects that by the end of 2011, it will employ at least 25.

“We’ve been in the research-and-development phase,” Lafferty said. “When the product goes to the market, that’s when the employment ramp begins.”

Still, Galtronics Telemetry has done as much local business as possible, he said, including buy custom-designed rubber pieces from a company in Bunnell.

Small device could yield large savings

Photo credit: Andrew O'Brien

The delays have been caused in part by multiple design changes, which then caused more delays as the company waited for approval from Underwriters Laboratories Inc., the public safety company that oversees product certifications and solutions.

Lafferty and Parsons hope to sell around 30,000 devices in 2011. Beyond that, Lafferty said, they hope to sell around 10,000 per month in 2012.

Mary Rodgers' neighborhood

The Matanzas Pirates placed fifth in the regional tournament as a team.

by Andrew O’Brien | Staff Writer

Mary Rodgers reached into her Nike golf bag — cluttered with Florida Gators head covers — and unsheathed her seven iron. She was on the par-three eighth hole at Grand Haven Golf Course Monday, Oct. 18, vying to repeat as the girls district 10-1A champion. She reared back and launched the ball high above the water toward the island green.

But a gust of wind churned up and caught the ball, flinging it into the water. No big deal, Rodgers thought. She took her drop and tried again.

Splash.

“I was so angry,” Rodgers recalled a week later. She took a deep breath, however, and finished the hole with a quadruple bogey.

“They shuttle you to the next hole, but I told them I wanted to walk,” she said. “Actually, you could say I stomped to the ninth.”

Rodgers went on to par the ninth hole and birdie the 10^th. Her 77 was low enough to win the district championship and help lead the Pirates to its second-consecutive team title.

From homemade to MVP

Rodgers grew up with golf.

At 4 years old, she dragged around a set of homemade clubs. At 11, she played in her first nine-hole tournament, which she won after shooting a 39.

For the next two years, she played the nine-hole format (the same format featured in high school until the district, region and state tournaments). She started playing in 18-hole tournaments at age 13.

Rodgers estimates she has won about 35 tournaments, and that includes the Palm Coast City Championships earlier this year. She won the Juinor 14-and-over title, shooting a 74. She also had the lowest round of any female golfer in the field.

Rodgers exudes leadership, too. She’s been the Pirates MVP three seasons in a row, and her game has inspired her teammates.

“As our team captain this year, Mary really helped raise the level of play among her teammates,” said coach Louise Wolfe. “I think that the way she approached her teammates and exemplified the desire to succeed extrinsically motivated the other players to step up their game as well.”

Over the summer, Rodgers worked incessantly on her downfall: her short game.
“I was used to three-putting every green,” she said. “I was scared for a three-foot par putt.”

But she’s greatly improved that facet of her game, which was evident when she sunk a 30-foot putt to save par on the 17^th hole in the district tournament. Now, the short game is one of her favorite parts, she said, but she still loves pulling out her driver and letting it rip. She averages about 250 yards off the tee.

And her hard training is paying off on the score card. Over the summer, she shot a 68 en route to winning the 18-hole Volusia/Flagler Junior Golf Association tournament. In the last match of the high school season, Rodgers shot a 32 — still tied for a two-county best for boys and girls golfers — on nine holes against Pedro Menendez, at St. Augustine Shores.

“The holes were as big as trash cans and everything was dropping  that day,” she said.

Coincidentally, Rodgers’ lone hole-in-one also came at St. Augustine Shores, when she was 13.

Regional disappointment

After missing the state cut by two strokes each of her first two seasons, Rodgers fell short again Tuesday, Oct. 26, after shooting an 82 in the regional tournament.

But fellow golfers beware: Rodgers doesn’t graduate until 2012.

Contact Andrew O’Brien at andrew@palmcoastobserver.com. 

Food pantry hits the road

Grace Community will use a surplus bus for deliveries. 
by Andrew O'Brien | Staff Writer
The Flagler County Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 to donate a surplus vehicle from Flagler County schools on Oct. 18. County Commissioner Milissa Holland dissented. 
The vehicle, a 2002 Ford E450 bus, will be donated and outfitted with a refrigerator, food heaters and other items necessary to provide people with food who don't have the transportation to make it to any of the food pantry's facilities.
Pastor Charles Silano, director of Grace Community Food Pantry, said the bus will be on the road year-round and not just during the holidays.
"There's a lot of people who don't have transportation," Silano said. "The good news is we're encountering more volunteers who want to help in this endeavor." 
Holland praised Silano's work within the community, but said she couldn't support the vehicle donation because it would set a precedent for other organizations to come to the County Commission with similar requests. 
"I think there's a need to support these efforts, but I don't think it's the government's responsibility," Holland said.
County Commissioner Alan Peterson agreed with Holland in the sense that a precedent would be established, but he still voted to approve the donation.
According to County Attorney Al Hadeed, the commissioner won't be required to grant such requests in the future because the decision is based on each individual request.
For the most recent quarter, from July to September, Grace Community Food Pantry helped 10,091 people and 2,397 households.
Silano said the main goal is to relieve stress on the people.
"We just want to build communities," Silano said.  

Holland seeks 3-D solution

With the economic referendum no longer on the ballot, it's back to the drawing board for economic development. The referendum will still be included on the Nov. 2 ballot, but the votes won't count.


by Andrew O'Brien | Staff Writer


Enterprise Flagler has closed the playbook on its new game plan for economic development, for now, and County Commissioner Milissa Holland has expressed that there is no clear-cut solution to the county's unemployment rate and non-diversified economy. It will take a variety of solutions, she says, because the problem isn't one-dimensional, it's 3-D.


Enterprise Flagler Executive Director Greg Rawls and board member Michael Chiumento stood before the Flagler County Board of County Commissioners Monday, Oct. 4, and requested the economic referendum appearing on this year's general election ballot not be counted. The County Commission unanimously approved the resolution to remove the referendum. 


Still, the commissioners acknowledged that Enterprise Flagler's work on the referendum brought economic development into focus for  the county. 


"The entire community (wants) to see leadership ... to address the tax burden, the unemployment, the diversity and the competitiveness our community is lacking," Chiumento said.


Holland said it was now time to "build upon some of the groundwork that was laid out by the referendum discussions." 


She asked staff to set up workshops with the other municipalities, as well as Enterprise Flagler and the Flagler County Chamber of Commerce & Affiliates.


"We need to be architects of our own destiny," Holland said at the meeting. "I think having a dedicated funding source is well-recognized, but I also think that the public deserves for us to work diligently to become more proactive rather than reactive to these issues."


Next step: Involve the municipalities 
Holland also said the focus shouldn't be on the prized 100,000-square-foot building that Enterprise Flagler has discussed. She said a speculative building could sit empty. 


For Holland, the process going forward should be centered on strategic planning. She said the county and its cities need to create the community they want to become, identify our assets and then market them.


A suggested alternative to the economic referendum has been a half-cent sales tax. With the referendum removed, the sales tax could highlight the upcoming discussion.


According to the Department of Revenue, the half-cent sales tax could generate approximately $3.8 million annually. 


Another potential player in the "3-D solution" is Hire Flagler, which began about a year ago and continues to meet to brainstorm ideas for job creation. 


"When it comes down to economic development," Holland said, "it can't just be one solution that you look toward. It needs to be multiple solutions that we create."


Economic vs. School Board referendum 
Enterprise Flagler also recognized the school district's referendum for the continuation of a .25-mill tax. 


"Based on the feedback we've received from the community," Rawls said, "many citizens are concerned with having two ad valorem tax initiatives on this fall's general election ballot. A key component to economic development is Flagler County's great school system. The last thing we want is to jeopardize the School Board from obtaining necessary funding if residents voted against  both initiatives." 


School Board member Andy Dance said he thinks it will be more palatable once voters realize the school's referendum is not a new tax, but a continuance of what they've been paying. The economic referendum was a new tax.


"The popular thought always was that having both (referendums) on the same ballot would be a negative," Dance said. The fear, he indicated, was that neither tax would be supported if there were two. 


As for what might have led to the demise of the economic referendum, County Commissioners Barbara Revels and Alan Peterson speculated the specificity might have been Enterprise Flagler's main hurdle: Residents may have been hesitant because they didn't know exactly how the money would be spent. 


"It was too general," Peterson said. "Essentially, it said give us $2 million a year and trust us." 


The estimated cost to taxpayers for the referendum was about $20 or $30 each year, which would result in about $1.8 million collected annually, and would have been controlled by the County Commission. It was expected to bring in about $15 million over 10 years.