County and Flagler Beach collaborators discuss surtax, lifeguards and visitor data platform; tourism director offers new mobility and visitation metrics

After the beach management discussion, commissioners reviewed a collaborative agenda with the city of Flagler Beach and other partners covering revenue options, visitor surveying and beach user services.

Commissioners agreed not to pursue a half‑cent county discretionary sales surtax this budget cycle after noting they lacked four supporting votes. The board asked staff to bring a brief, two‑page summary of existing visitation survey results rather than start a costly, new survey from scratch.

Lifeguard coverage and parking: commissioners discussed whether to expand lifeguard coverage in Flagler Beach and the budget implications of additional lifeguards or satellite lifeguard sites; they also discussed paid parking, shuttle options and intersection improvements near the Hamak Dunes bridge but took no formal action.

Visitor data platform: Amy Lukaszczuk said the tourism office recently subscribed to a geographic data platform that collects anonymized cell‑phone visitation metrics. She said staff supplied 25 county points of interest to the vendor, including Flagler Beach parking lots, the boardwalk and parks, and the platform can report visitor origin (in‑county vs out‑of‑county) and time‑on‑site metrics. Lukaszczuk said she will provide results for the September meeting.

Other collaboration topics included ecotourism and joint planning for the Roberts Road/State Road 100 corridor. Commissioners named two representatives (Andy and Dave) to participate in an upcoming collaborative meeting with the city (proposed dates: Sept. 13 and Sept. 20). The board adjourned following the discussion.