Palm Bay trivia and quick facts — Palm Bay, Florida

Palm Bay covers 86.672 square miles of land and 1.478 of water by the Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer, and the 2020 Census counted 119,760 residents.

The two area figures line up once water is counted. Adding the Census Bureau's 1.478 square miles of water to its 86.672 square miles of land for Palm Bay (Census 2024 Gazetteer) gives 88.15 square miles, in line with the City of Palm Bay's description of approximately 88 square miles (Discover Palm Bay). The same city page puts the population at 136,059, derived from FPL's active residential meter count estimate for October 2023, so it is a utility based estimate rather than a Census count.

The city's About page lists 29 city parks, including paintball and skateboarding, an aquatic center, a 200 acre regional park, two public and private golf courses and Turkey Creek Sanctuary, and counts 18 public and private K through 12 schools in Palm Bay (City of Palm Bay, About). Drivers reach the city from I-95 at exits 173 and 176. Palm Bay Fire Rescue covers the city with eight fire stations around the clock (Palm Bay Fire Rescue).

Yes: the city timeline says Palm Bay became Brevard County's most populous city in 1990, and the 2020 Census counted 119,760 people there against 84,678 in Melbourne.

The City of Palm Bay timeline records that in 1990 Palm Bay became the most populous city in Brevard County with 62,632 residents (City of Palm Bay, History). Three decades later the gap with Melbourne was about 35,000 people: the 2020 Census counted 119,760 in Palm Bay (2020 Census, Palm Bay) and 84,678 in Melbourne (2020 Census, Melbourne).

Brevard County as a whole counted 606,612 residents in the 2020 Census (2020 Census, Brevard County). Dividing 119,760 by 606,612 gives 19.7 percent, so roughly one Brevard County resident in five lived in Palm Bay on Census day 2020.

The city also makes a wider claim. Its Discover Palm Bay page calls Palm Bay the second largest city in central Florida (Discover Palm Bay), and the Palm Bay Police Department history page says the same while describing Palm Bay as the largest city in Brevard County (Palm Bay Police Department, History). Neither page defines which counties count as central Florida, so the ranking is the city's own.

The City of Palm Bay timeline dates the first school to 1966, the first bank and motel to 1974, the first city library to 1984 and Palm Bay Community Hospital to 1992.

The city's list is specific: the first school, Palm Bay Elementary, was built in 1966, and the first city library opened on Port Malabar Boulevard in 1984 (City of Palm Bay, History). The timeline also notes that Fire Station 1 was built on Palm Bay Road in 1967 and that the Florida Green Building Coalition certified Palm Bay as a Green Local Government in 2009.

One first has two answers. Long before Palm Bay Elementary, the citrus packing house at Tillman's Wharf on Turkey Creek served as a school: the 1987 National Register nomination for St. Joseph's Church says the packing house later became the town's first school (NRHP nomination, page 4). The city counts from 1966; the federal record reaches back to the Tillman years. The same nomination puts the first mass in Tillman in 1913 and the appointment of the first resident priest of St. Joseph's in 1924 (NRHP nomination, page 6).

The Palm Bay Police Department lists 14 past chiefs, from George Jackson in 1960 to 1961 through Mariano Augello, whose term on the list runs from March 2022 to April 2026.

The list on the Palm Bay Police Department history page (Palm Bay Police Department, History) shows how long early chiefs stayed. Walter E. Tauscher served from September 1962 to November 1971, nine years, and Paul G. Rumbley from May 1994 to July 2004, the longest term on the list at a little over ten years. Since 2015 no Palm Bay chief on the list has served more than about four years.

The list also shows gaps between terms, such as 1961 to September 1962 and January to December 1988, which the department page does not explain. The department's headquarters stands next to Palm Bay City Hall, and the same page carries photos of department vehicles from 1978 onward.

The Palm Bay City Council named the manatee the Official City Animal in Resolution 82-12 on March 25, 1982, alongside a resolution protecting manatees in Turkey Creek.

A 1982 final report on Palm Bay's manatee program, held in the federal Coastal Zone Information Center collection on GovInfo, records that the City Council of Palm Bay passed and adopted Resolution 82-12 designating the manatee as the Official City Animal on March 25, 1982 (1982 Turkey Creek manatee report). The Mayor then had a proclamation presented to the Governor in Tallahassee by school children.

At the same March 1982 meeting the Palm Bay City Council adopted Resolution 82-11, which declared Turkey Creek a local critical area for manatees and asked the state to set special enforcement zones in the creek. The Melbourne-Tillman outlet canal was connected to Turkey Creek in 1924 (1982 report), and that district today counts 163 miles of canals (Melbourne-Tillman Water Control District).

The City of Palm Bay timeline also records a 2018 ranking of the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville metro area as first for tech salaries and the city's 50th year in 2010.

According to the timeline, the metro area was named number one for tech salaries in 2018 with an average of $159,390, over three times the state average of $50,560 (City of Palm Bay, History). It notes that Harris-Seybold acquired Radiation, Inc., later Harris Corporation, in 1967, and that Hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne caused $13 million in damage and debris cleanup in Palm Bay in 2004.

The About page adds that the Eastern Florida State College Palm Bay Campus sits on Lake Titan (City of Palm Bay, About), one of four campuses the college spreads across Brevard County. The Palm Bay timeline lists the City Hall Annex as completed in 2011 to give city services a central location (City of Palm Bay, History).