- April 26, 2024
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Four years have passed since the closing of Florida Hospital Oceanside, the beachside's only emergency room, but City Commission Troy Kent remains hopeful that one day, the beachside will have an emergency room once again.
Kent, who represents Zone 2 in the city of Ormond Beach, has been advocating for an emergency room since the hospital closed in 2017 after it was damaged by Hurricane Irma. The property was demolished in 2019, and the site remains vacant to this day.
"Our residents deserve an emergency type room facility on the beachside that is nearby so they do not have to travel 20-plus minutes to the nearest hospital," Kent said.
The Ormond Beach Observer invited Kent to participate in a Q+A on local issues, to which Kent supplied his answers via email. This is what he had to say about some of the issues currently being talked about in the community.
Is there a project that you’re hoping is included in the upcoming budget?
Yes, I would like to see our city invest in another beachfront park like our Andy Romano Beachfront park. The Andy Romano Beachfront park is amazing and our residents love it. There is another piece of property that is currently vacant and has been for over 10 years. Our residents deserve another high quality beachfront park.
In 2019, the city updated its downtown master plan. What goal included in that plan do you think will make the highest impact on the city's quality of life?
Two areas that will have a major impact are 1) enhanced safety with pedestrian crosswalks within our downtown and 2) more public parking for our residents and visitors in our downtown.
Do you think an emergency room on the beachside is still a possibility? What can the city do to make that happen?
Yes, we need to sit down with the CEO’s of our two largest hospitals in the area and see what we can do together to make this plan happen. We also need our residents to speak up to both Halifax Hospital and Adventhealth and let them know that they want an emergency room on our beachside.
You were a yes vote to demolish the church. Why did you vote in favor of it?
The church on North Beach Street is in terrible condition. I am not in favor of partnering with citizen groups on this project because I believe the residents of Ormond Beach will be the ones footing the bill, and I believe the bill to make that building safe again will be in the millions of dollars. If we are not going to use the building for a community center then I think we should demolish the building and look at selling the property. The appraisal of the property was roughly the same with or without a building. I believe we bought the property at a good price and I believe we can make money for our bosses (the taxpayers) by selling the property if we are not going to construct a community center.
The police station is currently in your zone. What are your thoughts about exploring its relocation?
Our police station is in a great location. I have no interest in relocating our police department or City Hall. You hear people talk about them being in prime locations for real estate. I think our residents deserve to have these departments and buildings in prime locations. It seems like a terrible waste of money to tear down a perfectly good police station, especially since it has served our community so well for the past 20 years.
What is something that you’d like to accomplish in the next year?
I would like to do everything in my power to lessen the negative impacts that Avalon park in Daytona Beach will have on Ormond Beach residents. This is not an Ormond Beach project and we should not have to live with the traffic nightmares and fund the solutions to the problems that this project will have on our beautiful community. I would also like to add more storage for our reuse water systems.
