Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida August 31 2010
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City saving by the dozen |
Back in the 70s, Paul Simon had 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover. Our city has 12 ways - so far - to leave the checkbook alone.
In the 50s, Kitty Kallen advised Little Things Mean a Lot. Looking at the often overlooked little things is helping our city through lean times with reduced income and increased expenses. Ideas and annual savings:
1. Comparison shopping reduced a city employee health insurance increase from 26 percent to
two percent. Savings $645,000.
2. Today's retread technology makes sense for non-emergency vehicle tires. Savings $15,000.
3. No more $800 "city brown" paint jobs on new vehicles. Savings $5,000.
4. govdeals.com, a government eBay, beats local auctions for surplus. Income this year, $75,000.
5. Back-up generators go from outsourcing to in-house. Savings $12,000.
6. A new, efficient, "green-friendly chiller for City Hall air conditioning. Savings $15-$20,000.
7. Work force reduction through retirements, resignations, and readjustment of assignments. Savings $985,000.
8. Motion sensors turn lights off when the room is not in use. Savings $5,000.
9. LED lighting to be installed in our Visitor Center parking facility. Savings $60-$80,000; aeration and power improvements in our Wastewater Treatment Plant. Savings $100,000.
10. Comparison shopping for insurance. Savings $3,000 on life insurance, $110,000 on liability insurance.
11. Stepped-up recycling and refurbishing programs. Savings $70,000-plus.
12. Reduced area of right of way maintenance under agreement with the Florida Department of Transportation. Savings $28,000.
City Manager John Regan welcomes your ideas on cost savings. Contact him at cosa@citystaug.com. |
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Celebrating our birthday
St. Augustine's 445th birthday Saturday has three added features: the opening of the Mission of Nombre de Dios' new museum, transfer of Founder Pedro Menendez' casket in a solemn procession to the museum, and Aviles, Spain, Councilman Roman Alvarez among speakers at Landing Day ceremonies at the mission.
Menendez' ceremonial landing is at 10 a.m. at the north end of the Mission, followed by a Thanksgiving Mass and 16th century procession moving the Menendez casket to the new museum.
The celebration shifts to the 16th century encampment of the Men of Menendez at the adjacent Fountain of Youth Park at 1 p.m., with a recreation of the First Thanksgiving, followed at 4:30 with a 16th century cooking contest.
All events are free and open to the public.
Image: date is emblazoned on
Cross of Burgundy Flag, a
military flag (1506-1701), used
as a flag of Spanish Territories. |
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True sister city exchange
in Aviles councilman's visit | |
Roman Alvarez is more than a longtime city councilman in our sister city of Aviles, Spain. He's the council's commissioner of Culture and Sports, as well as art historian, scholar, and first European member of the St. Augustine Archaeology Association.
 This week he's more than a visiting dignitary here. Amid government talks and receptions, he'll be applying his scholarship in presentations at Stetson University, Flagler College, and our St. Augustine Art Association.
Today at Stetson University Alvarez, a widely respected scholar on the 1924 St. Augustine delegation visit to Aviles which resulted in the gift of Pedro Menendez' casket to our city, will recount that occasion and the key role of one of its members, John B. Stetson, Jr., then President of the Florida Historical Society.
Thursday at 4 he'll make a presentation in Flagler College's Flagler Room, and next Tuesday at 7 at the Art Association he'll discuss St. Augustine's artistic connection to Aviles, in a presentation on the paintings of the popular 19th century painter, Joaquin Sorolla.
Alvarez' weekend will be filled with Founder's Day activities, as he takes part in Saturday's ceremonies at our Mission of Nombre de Dios, beginning at 10 and including the transfer of the Menendez casket to its new home in the Mission Museum. |
| Journey of the Menendez casket | Pedro Menendez died September 7, 1574, while overseeing development of the Spanish Armada at Santander on Spain's north coast, near his hometown of Aviles.
He was laid to rest in a black wooden casket at a church in Santander, where he remained for 350 years until 1924, when his remains were moved to a crypt in San Nicholas Church in Aviles.
In ceremonies with a visiting delegation from sister city St. Augustine, his casket was given to our city.
Instrumental in the transfer was John B. Stetson Jr., son of the founder of Stetson Hat Company for whom the university is named. Stetson Jr. was a Stetson trustee and collector of Spanish manuscripts who helped found the Florida Historical Quarterly.
In 1940, the artifacts were given to the Mission of Nombre de Dios. The casket was placed in the shrine chapel of Our Lady of La Leche until the early 1960s, when it was moved to the climate-controlled Shrine gift shop. With expansion of the gift shop in 1996, the casket was placed in a special "Menendez Room."
Mission officials anticipate its new museum will be the final resting place for Founder Pedro Menendez' casket. |
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| 'Secret friendship' in documentary | |
The Andrew Young Foundation returns to Flagler College Friday with a new documentary, Change in the Wind, the little-known story of a secret friendship between Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell and Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, former president of the traditionally black Morehouse College.
The film showing is free, at Flagler College Auditorium. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the showing at 7:30.
The documentary, based on research with the University of Georgia and Morehouse, unfolds the relationship between the Pulitzer Prize-winning author, whose novel has been criticized for perpetuating racial stereotypes, and Mays, a staunch fighter of racism and mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Young's previous offering here was Crossing in St. Augustine, chronicling the pivotal civil rights struggle in St. Augustine in 1964.
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History's Highlight St. Augustine, founded September 8, 1565
As St. Augustine's 445th birthday approaches, this is the last of four accounts of our founding period, including Pedro Menendez' contract with Spain's King Phillip II, the founding voyage, the battle with the French, and the founding.
5 years and 9 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Days before setting foot on land himself, Pedro Menendez had sent two companies of infantry ashore to find a suitable location for fortification, while he continued searching the coastline for the French.
His troops were well received by the Seloy Indian tribe encamped in the area, the chief offering his timber and thatch house to them. Around this immense house, capable of holding 300 persons, the troops built an entrenchment with a slope of earth and facines (timbers).
 From the memoir of Father Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, principal priest to Menendez:
"On Saturday, the 8th, the general landed with many banners spread, to the sound of trumpets and salutes of artillery. As I had gone ashore the evening before, I took a cross and went to meet him, singing the hymn Te Deum laudamus.
"The general marched up to the cross, followed by all who accompanied him, and there they kneeled and embraced the cross. A large number of Indians watched these proceedings and imitated all they saw done.
"The same day the general took formal possession of the country in the name of his Majesty, and all the captains took the oath of allegiance to him, as their general and governor of the country.
"When this ceremony was ended, he offered to do everything in his power for them, especially for Captain Patino who . . . I think, will be rewarded for his assiduity and talents in constructing a fort in which to defend ourselves until the arrival of help from St. Domingo and Havana."
University of Florida History Professor Emeritus Michael Gannon established through research that, following the landing and a Mass of Thanksgiving, a feast was ordered by Menendez, at which the Seloy tribe took part - the first Thanksgiving in these lands.
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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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