Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida July 20 2010
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| Carriage ordinance in redraft stage | A $5,000 permit fee for carriages is "off the table," Assistant City Attorney Carlos Mendoza assured three dozen carriage business owners, drivers, animal rights activists, and residents at a public discussion session Monday. "There's no (fee) number, but it's going to be a lot less, and maybe nothing."
It was a recurring concern as Mendoza invited public comment on "any concerns you might have" as he prepares a new draft carriage ordinance. It will go before our City Commission next Monday at 3:30 in a 1½ hour workshop before its regular meeting at 5 p.m.
Reviewing a previous draft ordinance, commissioners called for a revision with input from carriage businesses and the public.
Among the possibilities in the new draft: a shift of the carriage stand to the Visitor Center turnout off Orange Street, a revised carriage route away from congested areas, and codification of hours of operation and the heat index to pull horses off the street. Mendoza said our city is not attempting to take over the carriage trade.
Responding to comments that a carriage ordinance was prompted by our city's recent legal battle with Avalon Carriage owner Murphy McDaniel, Mendoza said, "This is not retaliatory, but how to do things better."
Regarding that suit, Mendoza said, "The City absolutely won the law suit. You can take it to your grave that a court doesn't award you costs unless you prevail in the lawsuit."
Mendoza continues to invite public input as he prepares the new draft. Email or call him at 825-1052. |
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Summer season
of concerts
There's St. Augustine's Concerts in the PlazaThursdays at 7, St. Augustine Beach's Music by the Sea at the pier Wednesdays at 7, and now The Lincolnville Summer Music Series Sundays at 2 on the oak-shaded grounds of St. Benedict Church.
The latest musical addition is also free, but donations are encouraged to help restore Lincolnville's historic Echo House, where the St Paul School of Excellence hopes to open classes next year.
And what Sunday afternoon concert would be complete without a plate of ribs? Pop Terry, who makes some of the best Bar-B-Q in St Augustine, is cooking each week, along with other refreshments and cakes. Bring your chairs or rent one for a $1donation.
Photo: Shirley Galvin |
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| Commission to discuss 450th | |
City commissioners will huddle tomorrow morning at 9 to discuss First America: 450th Commemoration.
City officials note that commission workshops, while open to the public, are designed for commissioners to discuss present and future plans, and public comment will not necessarily be invited.
The session will be in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
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| 450th begun in community |
Citizen groups have gotten things started for our commemoration period while awaiting an official committee list, which is likely to include more than 40 committees.
 Expect an archaeology committee, and our St. Augustine Archaeological Association is already at work developing markers for historic sites; a reenactment committee, and two living history groups are already developing 16th century wardrobes and cuisine (two dozen attended a wardrobe session Saturday).
An events committee can include Romanza Where the Arts Embrace the Sea, well on its way to an annual Spoleto-style festival.
The St Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation is developing subcommittees for not only a replica 16th century tall ship but living  history exhibits, water taxi, and maritime workshops.
Music will be in the air, and a new Lincolnville Summer Music Series not only adds another concert venue but contributions will go to restoration of historic Echo House, to be embraced by an historic restoration committee.
And a beautification committee for streetscapes and gardens can benefit from CitySprout's Lincolnville Community Garden, where dozens of citizens and organizations have come together to grow everything from herbs to fruit trees. |
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| Fullerwood joins our National Register districts |
Florida's Division of Historical Resources has approved and forwarded to the US Department of the Interior the Fullerwood Park nomination to become our city's sixth National Register Historic District,
It joins City of St. Augustine (downtown St. Augustine), Model Land Company, Abbott Tract, Lincolnville, and North City, with a seventh, Nelmar Terrace, in the wings for the elite designation.
Our Comprehensive Plan calls for efforts to achieve national register status for our neighborhoods, but Planning and Building Director Mark Knight says, "This is a designation the city would pursue anyway because of our history and our desire to keep the historic nature of the city in the forefront."
How to vote - technically
 The St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections is giving hands-on demonstrations of new voting equipment for Election 2010. No hanging chads, but you'll still be filling in those little circles.
In cooperation with our County Public Library system, you can get a practice run at the Southeast Branch July 26 from 1 to 5 p.m., Bartram Trail July 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Ponte Vedra 1 to 5 p.m., Anastasia Island July 29 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Hastings 1 to 5 p.m., and the Main Library July 30 from 1 to 5 p.m.
The DS200 even notes errors, like missing a vote area, and returns your ballot for corrections.
The system is also in a video on the Elections Supervisor's website. |
| In the mailbag |
Archaeology captures the past
A reader responds to Tales of Our City Told in Archaeology (Report July 9), "Most interesting, George! This is just the sort of project St. Augustine needs, before 2013/15, to give people a real taste of San Agustin's extraordinary past. Unlike Jamestown and Plimoth, which were abandoned, St. Augustine has continued to survive on the same spot.
"And, o' course, this is just the sort of thing us history nuts LOVE. Many's the time I've sat in the Plaza, looked south, and tried to picture what San Agustin Antiguo would've looked like - the fort, the guard house, the wharf and customs shed, the church, the powder house, the stocks ..." |
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History's Highlights
St. Augustine - a British assessment in 1770
One in a series of historic features as we prepare for our commemorations, drawn from research by George Gardner.
5 years, 1 month, and 20 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
William Dewhurst's 1880 History of St. Augustine describes a variety of assessments of the 300-year-old town when the British took over in 1763, perhaps most thorough that of the English surveyor-general, Gerard De Brahm:
"At the time the Spaniards left the town, all the gardens were well stocked with fruit trees, viz.: figs, guavas, plantain, pomegranates, lemons, limes, citrons, shaddock, bergamot, China and Seville oranges, the latter full of fruit throughout the whole winter season.
 "The town is three quarters of a mile in length, but not a quarter wide; had four churches ornamentally built with stone in the Spanish taste, of which one within and one without the town exist.
"All the houses are built of masonry; their entrances are shaded by piazzas, supported by Tuscan pillars or pilasters against the south sun. The houses have to the east windows projecting sixteen or eighteen inches into the street, very wide and proportionally high. On the west side, their windows are commonly very small, and no opening of any kind on the north, on which side they have double walls six or eight feet asunder, forming a kind of gallery which answers for cellars and pantries.
"Before most of the entrances were arbors of vines, producing plenty and very good grapes. No house has any chimney or fireplace; the Spaniards made use of stone urns, filled them with coals left in their kitchens in the afternoon, and set them at sunset in their bedrooms to defend themselves against those winter seasons which required such care.
"The soil in the gardens and environs of the town is chiefly sandy and marshy. The Spaniards seem to have had a notion of manuring their land with shells one foot deep."
In 1770, according to De Brahm, there were 288 householders - exclusive of women and children - of whom 31 were storekeepers and traders, 3 haberdashers, 15 innkeepers, 45 artificers and mechanics, no planters, 4 hunters, 6 cow-keepers, 11 overseers, 12 draftsmen in the employ of the government, besides mathematicians.
Fifty-eight had left the province, and 28 had died, of whom 4 were killed acting as constables, and two hanged for piracy.
Image: Spanish loggia from Dewhurst's History of St. Augustine
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The St. Augustine Report is published by the Department of Public Affairs of the City of St. Augustine each Tuesday and on Fridays previewing City Commission meetings. The Report is written and distributed by George Gardner, former St. Augustine Mayor (2002-2006) and Commissioner (2006-2008) and a longtime newspaper reporter and editor. Contact The Report at gardner@aug.com |
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