Cost to the taxpayers: $13,250

NSBNews.net videos by Henry Frederick / Videos produced by NSBNews.net Multimedia Editor Sera Frederick /

The New Year's eve fireworks on Flagler Avenue in New Smyrna Beach lasted all of 6 minutes at a cost of $6,500 to the taxpayers as shown in the video at left. The taxpayers' share of the street party was another $6,525 for a grand total of $13,250 in CRA-taxpayer supported dollars with the unanimous blessing of the NSB City Commission. There were plenty of revelers drinking in public, even in the presence of the cops and little kids. In the video to the right, cops only talked to beer drinkers outside the Om Bar after NSBNews.net pointed it out to them.

NSBNews.net photos by Henry Frederick / The men posing for this shot in front of the Om Bar made no attempt to conceal their beers. Kyle Williams, Brad and Michelle Griffin and Chelsea Williams. The Griffins were visiting from out of state with the Williams' of Eustis.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- The party was on Flagler Avenue, complete with fireworks and plenty of public drinking, to ring in the new year and your tax dollars -- $13,250 -- helped pay for it.

There were plenty of people, especially families with small children, at the restaurants including an overflow crowd at Clancy's Cantina leading up to the 9 p.m. fireworks.

Even with the fireworks, vehicles were allowed midway on the avenue, which created a hazardous situation for pedestrians during the show. Within 6 minutes, the fireworks were over and families made a mass exodus to their vehicles, again dealing with traffic on Flagler, to the side streets with their kids while adult revelers openly consumed alcohol in front of them.

But by 9:45 p.m. the avenue was clear of people with the exception of those bar hopping. At its peak, police said about 2,000 people showed up, far less than the 8,000 to 10,000 the Daytona Beach News-Journal story published that morning that claimed showed up at last year's event. NSBNews.net was the only media outlet covering last year's event as was the case this time around as well and the cops estimated about 2,500 people attended the previous New Year's eve party.

The News-Journal has been the beneficiary of CRA advertising throughout the course of this holiday season with a series of promotional stories for merchant leaders on Flagler and Canal Street in return. NSBNews.net is in the process of calculating the exact amounts, but is in the thousands, including an ad for the "NSB Waterfront Loop," the city's marketing campaign that has not resonated with the public.

A man and a woman drink openly on the public sidewalk in front of the Om Bar on New Year's eve before a cop tells them to take their beer back inside the bar. 

The cop told NSBNews.net there were only two of them on beachside and there were just too many people drinking in public to really do anything about it.

Saturday's story in the News-Journal was actually headlined, "New Smyrna Beach crowd will party hearty." The story had no quotes in it from any of the organizers or city officials. There were no people in the story. There was, however, a list of all of the bars on Flagler, along with their addresses.

The News-Journal story included the following number for readers to call, 800-541-9621. NSBNews.net called the number and got an answering machine message identifying it as the New Smyrna Beach Visitor's Bureau and to press zero if the caller wanted a brochure. NSBNews.net pressed zero and got a different voice recording suggesting the caller leave their name and phone number.

There were no major issues during the night aside from the public drinking, even in the presence of NSB cops in two squad cars. At the midnight hour, NSBNews.net was parked directly across the street from the Om Bar in a closed convenience store lot from 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. The police cars also parked there as well, coming in and out several times.

Earlier, when the crowd had thinned after the brief fireworks, NSBNews.net took note of several Om Bar patrons drinking outside with beer in glass mugs and approached the cops who were just east of that bar on Flagler and asked: "Hello, gentlemen; is it OK that people are drinking in front of the Om Bar right now with alcohol?"

One of the cops responded, "No, we'll go over there and start talking to them."

The patrons then went back inside the Om Bar and the cop spoke with the doorman, making it clear the police were going to keep an eye on the bar, which they did throughout the rest of the night and into the early hours. The cop later explained he and the others on patrol -- two on the beachside and two on the mainland -- couldn't do much about the public drinking because there just wasn't enough manpower to enforce the law. Drinking in public is a misdemeanor.

A cop warns the doorman at the Om Bar not to let patrons go outside with beer purchased inside.

The patrons then went back inside the Om Bar and the cop spoke with the doorman, making it clear the police were going to keep an eye on the bar, which they did throughout the rest of the night and into the early hours. The cop later explained he and the others on patrol -- two on the beachside and two on the mainland -- couldn't do much about the public drinking because there just wasn't enough manpower to enforce the law. Drinking in public is a misdemeanor.

The Om Bar is managed by Elaine Stathakis, head of the Merchants of Flagler Hospitality Group. It was her group that received $62,125 from the Community Redevelopment Agency for a series of street festivals, the New Year's party being the most expensive at $13,250.

New Year's eve revelers strolled Flagler Avenue while carrying cups of beers as shown in the inset photo. A cardboard beer container is stuffed in the trash along with plastic cups up and down the avenue.

Because the total amount approved by the CRA last summer exceeded the $25,000 threshold, the funding request went to the City Commission for a Sept. 27 vote.

The request was placed under the commission's "consent agenda" where public participation is not allowed. Three commissioners, Jim Hathaway, Lynne Plaskett and Judy Reiker asked Adelle Aletti to consider including local media, but didn't make that a prerequisite. Mayor Adam Barringer and Commissioner Jack Grasty were silent and when it came to a vote, all five elected officials approved the $62,125, which included $46,000 in media advertising.

NSBNews.net and WSBB Radio, the only media outlets in New Smyrna Beach, were excluded from the advertising, though WSBB did get significant advertising, as did the News-Journal and the Observer, from the Historic Canal Street merchants group headed by Cindy Jones.

The Flagler Hospitality merchants designated Black Crow Radio of Daytona Beach, which emerged from bankruptcy last year, as the main advertising venue with smaller amounts going to the News-Journal and the now-defunct weekly Observer newspaper, which was being operated out of the publisher's Edgewater home.

NSBNews.net made a point of informing the commissioner's during public participation a few minutes later in the meeting that this had marked the third year in a row that NSBNews.net remained the lone media outlet not to receive a cent of advertising from any of the merchant groups.

Three days after that meeting, Barringer sent NSBNews.net an e-mail demanding the ads for his bar/restaurant and construction company be removed and said he was discontinuing his weekly "Mayor's Message" blog.

Since then, there has been a wall of silence from the commission since then, though Hathaway initially agreed to take Barringer's place with a blog and began advertising his campaign for County Council in the 2012 elections. But early last month, Hathaway, too, pulled out. NSBNews.net will have more on that later in the investigative series, "Show Me the Money: New Smyrna Beach."

NSBNews.net reached out to the mayor and the commissioners in a read/receipt e-mail at 11:37 p.m. from Flagler Avenue about the public drinking during the New Year's celebration, reminding them that $13,000-plus in taxpayer money was spent on this event.

Only Hathaway responded, at 9:50 p.m. Sunday from his cell phone, stating: "I saw the fireworks from Inlet Shores, I thought it was a pretty good show, can't comment on the rest as I was asleep. J Hathaway...Happy New Year!"

Only Hathaway responded, at 9:50 p.m. Sunday from his cell phone, stating: "I saw the fireworks from Inlet Shores, I thought it was a pretty good show, can't comment on the rest as I was asleep. J Hathaway...Happy New Year!"

Hathaway sidestepped the drinking, something he and commissioners Reiker, Grasty, and Plaskett, as well as Mayor Barringer did when they were asked point blank during the public participation portion of a November meeting by beachside resident Deborah Dugas about how they planned to address public drinking on Flagler during Halloween. After she asked her question, they all looked at her and said nothing. She then returned to her seat.

Dugas made her inquiry in response to a video shot by NSBNews.net during the Flagler hospitality merchant group's "Smyrna-Ween Creepy Crawl" event  on Halloween night. Attendance was abysmal with only a couple of hundred showing up at the Flagler bars.  While Dugas was making her inquiry, Stathakis, who attended, covered her face with the agenda sheets when NSBNews.net pointed the camera in her direction. She has repeatedly refused to speak with NSBNews.net. More on Stathakis will be highlighted in upcoming segments of this investigative series.

Commissioners Reiker, Plaskett and Grasty each asked NSBNews.net separately if the online newspaper lured customers from the bars as had been suggested by people they would not name. NSBNews.net denied the allegations and offered to show the commissioners the raw video, which clearly shows NSBNews.net approaching bar patrons standing on the public sidewalk drinking. The commissioners didn't want to see the raw footage and Reiker went as far as saying, "I didn't think you would go through all that trouble, but I was just asking."

That Halloween event was subsidized with $6,525 in taxpayers' money as well through the CRA as part of the $62,125 the Flagler hospitality merchant's group received for the current fiscal year thaty started Oct. 1.

The Halloween event was followed by a Chili cookoff on Flagler during Biketoberfest that was to appeal to the biker crowd, but attendance for that event was abysmal, too, at a cost of $6,525 to the taxpayers.

Then came "Light Up Flagler," last month, which also cost the taxpayers $6,525, and drew about 1,200 people. It too, was promoted in a story by the News-Journal claiming snow would fall on the avenue. The snow turned out to be soap flakes spit out of a dish detergent machine from the roof of the Om Bar.  Only NSBNews.net covered the actual event on the avenue as has been the case with virtually every major event in New Smyrna Beach over the past three years.

NSBNews.net videos and photo by Henry Frederick / Videos produced by NSBNews.net Multimedia Editor Sera Frederick.

The video to the left was shot during Biketoberfest showing a sparse crowd for the Chili and Chaps event on Flagler Avenue. The video to the right shows Halloween revelers drinking alcohol outside bars on the public sidewalks in violation of the law.Both events were subsidized with taxpayer dollars.

Previous coverage for "Show Me the Money: New Smyrna Beach"

NSBNews.net is Florida's first fully-online 24/7 Internet newspaper launched April 7, 2008, and based in New Smyrna Beach. NSB News is led by award-winning journalist Henry Frederick and award-winning blogger Peter Mallory with emphasis on breaking news, news of record and investigative reporting here and across the Sunshine State.