CURRENT ARTICLES

Palm Coast Historical Society

MAYOR JON NETTS

Mayor Jon Netts If his personal exuberance is any indication of how he will guide this City, Jon Netts will prove to be an extremely successful Mayor for the citizens of Palm Coast. Mayor Netts garnered a two-thirds majority of the City's primary vote in September, energizing his commit­ment to the community with resounding momentum for his new role. As Mr. Netts served as the District #2 Council Member for the past six years, maintaining continuity of the Council's day-to-day business was a premier motive for his Mayoral candidacy "With two of our Founding Fathers retiring, the Council needed to retain someone with experience in local government who embraces the City's history and comprehends our growing pains," the mayor affirms. Mayor Netts wants citizens to know exactly what they can expect from their newly elected officials: respect for each other's opinions as they perform their duties with a responsible point of view. "Council has always approached their duties while being considerate of each other's ideas," says the Mayor. "We may have conflicting opinions, but if we disagree without being disagreeable, we are doing a good job for our citizens." Jon Netts brings excellent leadership and profession­al credentials to his position as Mayor. He holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in science and has completed his doctoral work in Administration, Policy and Urban Education at Fordham University Prior to retiring to Palm Coast in 1992, Mayor Netts served as an educator and a district-wide curriculum administrator in New Jersey, as well as Director of the Northern New Jersey Provisional Teacher Training Consortium. Upon moving to Palm Coast, Mr. Netts strived to make a difference in his new hometown. He was elected to the City Council in 2001, rep resent ­ing citizens as Vice Mayor in 2003 and 2007. He also has served on the Code Enforcement Board, the Executive Board of Florida Habitat for Humanity, the Palm Coast Historical Society, Enterprise Flagler and he is currently Commissioner for the Florida Inland Navigation District. When he is not sitting at the City Council table, Mayor Netts can be found sitting at the helm of his boat. As a Coast Guard Licensed Master, "Captain Netts" spends much of his recreational time rescuing stranded boaters. He truly enjoys cruising the waters in Palm Coast, in search of peace as well as in search of boaters in trouble.

Dr Norman Young

The 40th Anniversary of the Naming of Palm Coast, 1968 by Art Dycke, City Historian                  The birth of our Palm Coast community came about as a result of the marriageť of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation (ITT) and Levitt and Sons when the former bought the latter in 1967 and added it to the ITT conglomerate as a wholly-owned subsidiary in 1968.The initial planning and naming of Palm Coast took place that year.                ITT had started as an international communications firm in the 1930s.It bought into companies that specialized in all forms of electronic communications throughout the world, becoming a dominant competitor in U.S. and international telecommunications by the time Harold Geneen was elected CEO in 1959. In 1963, ITT attempted to purchase the ABC television network for $700 million.  The sale was stopped by federal anti-trust regulators who claimed that ITT was becoming a monopoly. ITT then turned to the acquisition of companies outside of their primary industry, pioneering a new business form called the conglomerate.  By 1968, ITT owned 300 subsidiary companies that included Rayonier (forest products and land), Sheraton (hotels), Hartford Insurance, Avis (car rentals) and even Wonder Bread.  By 1968 the ITT conglomerates income was estimated to be over 7 billion dollars.                Levitt and Sons was the legendary builder of affordable post-war American housing developments.  The first Levittown, on Long Island in New York, begun in 1946, was completed in 1951 with 17,447 homes. Others followed in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.  After the death of the founding father, Alfred Levitt, in 1966, his son William struck a deal with ITT in July 1967 to sell the company to them for 92 million dollars.  ITT would completely own the Levitt and Sons trade name. Bill Levitt was to receive $175,000 annually for five years and agree not to compete in the building of homes for ten years.  On this basis Levitt and Sons Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1968. The local subsidiary was named ITT/Levitt and all the earliest development, platting and sales were done under this name.                From the outset ITT provided the financial muscle to purchase large tracts of land and pay the enormous cost of constructing a huge infrastructure.  It had a long term vision of involving as many of its subsidiaries as possible in creating a huge new development in rural Flagler County, Florida.  But let there be no doubt that the early planning, layout, construction, and even naming of the future Palm Coast community was squarely in the hands of the Levitt and Sons engineering and marketing departments.                The man in charge of the Palm Coast development from its inception until 1975 was Dr. Norman Young.   Newsweek described Young’s background in an article about Levitt and Sons in 1965. “Levitt began to surround himself with a team of experts in administration and marketing.  Some, like senior vice president Norman Young, hardly knew what to do with the business end of a hammer, but as a doctor of psychology and a veteran of a Madison Avenue advertising agency â€" Young knew a good deal about how to upgrade an organization’s sales and research staffs.” In the fall of 1968, Dr. Norman Young began making presentations of his vision of a huge environmentally attractive planned community with 500 miles of infrastructure to service the sale of 48,000 lots (mostly quarter acre) that would eventually sustain 700,000 residents. One of the ITT representatives who attended an early Young presentation in 1968 was Alan Smolen, who later took over as head of the Palm Coast development from 1975 to 1985.                 Meanwhile, ITT was preparing to purchase the enormous land acreage necessary for the development, mostly through its Rayonier subsidiary, which already owned large tracts of forest land in Flagler and St. John counties and had the advantage of buying land at less expensive forest land rates.  ITT set up other small subsidiaries to make additional land purchases. The seeds were planted in 1968, but the first visible sprouts of what was to come did not appear until The Flagler Tribune announced ITT’s purchase of an abandoned cement factory on January 2 of the following year

New Book About Palm Coast History is Available Alan Smolen: Father of Palm Coast, 1975-1985 by Art Dycke, Palm Coast City Historian, will be available in early January 2008. In 138 pages of text and photos, it tells the story of the man who shaped the development of Palm Coast in his years as President of the ITT Development Corporation. It also presents a fairly complete history of the Palm Coast community. Older residents can relive "the good old days" and newcomers can learn how Publix and I-95 Interchange got there. Alan Smolen and Art Dycke will be at the Palm Coast Birthday Brunch on January 19, 2008 where the book will be available to purchase for $15.00 as will the few remaining copies of the presently out-of-stock Images of America: Palm Coast, which is a picture history at $19.99.   Call Art Dycke at 446-8036 for additional information. Watson Reality Donates Data to the Historical Society Diana Minotti, a new member this year, and her husband are friends of Lindsay Dolamore, Vice President of Watson, and told him about us and what we are doing. He advised her that when ITT pulled out their real estate records, maybe 75 boxes, were turned over to Watson and were stored on the top floor of their building. We met with him and he showed us all of the boxes and we checked the contents of some. Lindsay advised us we can use his place to go through the boxes and sort out what we want to keep for historical purposes and, if we do not have room at the Center, the boxes can stay there with free access to them. Lindsay also advised us that we can call and schedule meetings in their Training Conference room which contains all of the equipment we need. The next two meetings are scheduled to be at Watson Reality on Palm Coast Prky West. Thank you Lindsay! Members and Non-Members  VOLUNTEERS NEEDED Volunteers needed to assist in organizing historic materials at the History Center, 2 Commerce Blvd. (City Hall). Look for blue half circle awning on left side of building. Great opportunity to learn about our community's past plus no cataloging experience necessary. Sample Tasks     1.. Cataloging - going through boxes of materials to list and categorize contents. A computer listing will then be created.     2.. Clippings - clip, duplicate and organize relevant newspaper articles.     3.. Trace the history of golf, tennis, organizations, and businesses, churches through the years from old newspapers, magazines and contacting people associated with the groups.     4.. Help computerize a photo file and produce historical CD programs. Pat Eldridge, who has a Doctorate in Cataloging, is Chairman of the project. Claire Sheekey, our Corresponding Secretary, will be calling volunteers to remind them of the dates they will be working on the project. Current volunteers are: Kurt Bottoms, Betty Buchanan, Mary Ann Kirby, Carol Lemieux, Ronnie Lyons, Mary MacLean, Ed Moore, Bob Nastek, Steve Ripley January 11, 2008, 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm at the History Center, 2 Commerce Blvd. (City Hall). Look for blue half circle awning on left side of building. Cataloging process. Focus of this meeting is to meet the volunteers and explain the project and how they will begin cataloging. There will be a demonstration.