Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida September 14 2010
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City approves university agreement |
City commissioners Monday approved a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of Florida to "share in the common interest and purpose" of preserving St. Augustine's history.
Also approved in concept was the transfer of a .22 acre of city land in our Colonial Spanish Quarter to the National Park Service as part of a package to build a Castillo Orientation Center. Negotiations on that transfer await action today by the state Internal Improvements Trust Fund (Governor and Cabinet), which is expected to approve transfer of an adjoining .22 acre parcel for the project.
Monday's commission action also included public hearings and final approval of limits on street corner panhandling, expansion of our codes on aggressive panhandling, a ban on future outside vehicle lifts, and an amendment to the Whispering Creek Planned Unit Development to include 18 additional assisted living beds and 40 skilled nursing beds. |
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Picasso exhibit
planned here A traveling exhibit of Pablo Picasso's art is planned for exhibit here during our commemoration period.
It's one of a number of success stories on our relationship with Spain to come from a recent delegation visit to our sister city, Aviles, Cadiz - the center for Spain's 200th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution, and Malaga, where a replica of the 18th century warship Galveztown is being built, including timber sent from St. Augustine.
Vice Mayor Errol Jones and City Manager John Regan outlined for commissioners Monday plans for expanded education exchanges from elementary to university levels, art and cultural exchanges, creation of a copy of our Constitución monument for Cadiz, and even a transaction with an Aviles industry to purchase fire doors for our Visitor Center parking facility in exchange for their bringing industrial clients to visit our city. |
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Partnership to begin
with $483,873 in repairs | | A partnership between our city and the University of Florida - now managing the 34 state-owned properties here - begins with nearly $483,873 in repairs to eleven properties, including the restrooms on St. George Street and the Government House.
University Vice President Ed Poppell said he also has "a shopping list of grants and legislative initiatives" prepared to generate future capital for ongoing historic property repairs.
City Heritage Director Dana Ste. Claire allayed concerns from the university's strategic plan shaped two years ago, saying our Visitor Center will not be replaced by the proposed Castillo Orientation Center in the Spanish Quarter, "and you won't see blue and orange university signage around town," referring to the strategic plan's "UF branding of state-owned assets."
The agreement gives our city management of the Spanish Quarter, and a direct support organization will oversee the entire university management here.
Hurdles remain for Castillo center
Transfer of state-owned land, then agreements with the National Park Service (NPS), remain to move forward with a Castillo Orientation Center in our Colonial Spanish Quarter.
Today's agenda of the Internal Improvements Trust Fund includes the request that "donation of the 0.22-acre parcel of state-owned property to the United States of America provides a greater benefit to the public than its retention in state ownership."
Commissioners agreed Monday to a transfer of the former .22 acre Mary Peck lot to the NPS to complete a site package with the state land, but both transfers are expected to carry five-year "reverters" - the lands will revert back if a proposed Castillo Orientation Center isn't built.
The National Park Service must be given the land, and "doesn't usually accept conditions," City Manager John Regan said. "That's what we'll be negotiating in a memorandum of agreement."
St. Francis move
'3 to 5 years away'
"I don't see St. Francis House moving for three to five years," City Manager John Regan, a member of the operating St. Augustine Society, told Commissioners Monday.
City Commissioner Leanna Freeman called for discussion of the homeless challenge during the commission meeting, suggesting "at least a temporary fix" to increase bed space at the shelter with installation of an $80,000 sprinkler system.
Lack of sprinklers forced St. Francis to discontinue a pilot program last year that added fifteen beds in the shelter dining room and resulted in hundreds of homeless referrals to needed social services.
"We need fifteen beds and need $3 million to get them. That doesn't make sense," Freeman said, referring to St. Francis House plans to build a new shelter on a former fire/rescue site off Old Moultrie Road. Regan said the planned discontinuation of meals at the shelter can help open space, but a battle continues with the St. Gerard House near the new site.
"Let's look for partnerships with the sheriff and businesses," Mayor Joe Boles concluded. |
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| Carriage ordinance due in November |
One horse carriage permit holder "leases out that permit for $8,000 a year," Assistant City Attorney Carlos Mendoza told city commissioners in a Monday workshop as he presented the case for reducing the number of available permits to 25 with a fee of $1,000 each.
"If the $3,800 a year in permit fees at $80 each (the current rate) covered the city's expenses, we wouldn't be here," Mendoza said.
Commissioners heard testimony from city staff on road damage, auditing, and a urine odor-canceling enzyme as Mendoza built his case. He's documented some $25,000 in annual expenses. Under consideration are $1,000 permit fees and possibly franchise fees on a percentage of gross sales, as currently in place for sightseeing trains and trolleys.
Mendoza was asked to present a horse carriage ordinance in November with provisions for adjustment by resolution, meaning changes such as routes and rates could be made without the lengthier process of amending the ordinance.
Currently proposed: a total of 25 permits, limiting a single business to ten permits, and prohibiting permit transfers.
"Not one person up here has said we want to do away with the carriage industry," Mayor Joe Boles said. "But we want to be able to assure our taxpayers it's not costing them money."
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Help wanted - $100,000+ |
First America Foundation, Inc., our city's authorized agency for the upcoming commemorations, is looking for an executive director - salary $100,000-plus.
Advertising on the Nonprofit Jobs Cooperative website describes the position:
"Work closely with Board Chair of newly formed and funded organization with a specific, narrow and unusual mission. Local (St. Augustine, FL) focus with national and international implications. Must be able to help Board rapidly complete its strategic planning process and then design, hire, manage, lead and direct the staff that will implement that plan."
The foundation was authorized by our City Commission a month ago, along with $275,000 in start-up funding, the amount earlier budgeted by the city for two years of commemoration planning.
Interested? Contact Don Wallis 904-673-1608.
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| Tackling education's challenges | |
With the start of a new school year, the citizen Academic/Education Coalition gets back to work "to provide a forum for individuals, agencies, and organizations to collaborate and share for the purpose of strengthening our school system in meeting the academic/education needs of ALL students."
The coalition will meet Thursday 3:30-5 p.m.at the Fullerwood Training Center, the former Fullerwood School on Hildreth Drive, in the first of bimonthly meetings throughout the school year.
It grew out of A People United, organized by Pastor Ron Rawls of St Paul's AME Church to "create a hub into which community organizations feed information on services they provide - a clearing house for community service."
For schools, Superintendent Joe Joyner said, "More adults are needed in the schools as clerks, teacher aids, instructional coaches, and mentors."
Coalition Facilitator Margaret Nicholson 797-6022 urges "all individuals and agencies interested in the collaborative effort" to attend.
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History's Highlight
Black Jacks - Early America's Mariners
One in a series of historic features as we prepare for our 450th, researched by George Gardner
4 years, 11 months, 26 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
The following is drawn from an account by Cliff Odle on the Freedom Trail website.
The enslaved were sold into it, the free choose it. In the late 1700s, as shipping activity for a young nation grew, they made up ten percent of the sailors and dockworkers. By the 1830s, twenty percent of all maritime workers in the country were of African decent.
"Black Jacks" were in their late twenties or early thirties. Most were slaves hired out by their masters when work on the plantations and farms became scarce.
White or black, life on a ship was hard. They had to respond to orders filled with unfamiliar words, and know the difference between a baggy wrinkle and a boot top, between a chock and a chine.
 The basic hierarchy was able seamen, ordinary seamen and boy. The sea was one of the few places that a 40-year-old man, white or black, could be called boy without offence.
At sea they faced everything from pirates and privateers to shipwrecks and sharks. And there were ship-borne diseases like scurvy. Impressments, or sanctioned kidnappings, were another danger. One of the triggers of the War of 1812 was the impressment of four sailors from the Chesapeake by the HMS Leopold.
Imprisonment was a routine for black sailors who arrived in southern ports. Landing in cities like Newport, Virginia, or New Orleans would mean shore leave behind bars.
There were those bold enough to rise in the ranks. Captain Paul Cuffe was born free in 1759 in Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts. At 16 he went to sea, and at 24 became part owner and captain of his own ship. In 1780 he and his brother refused to pay taxes on their property because they did not have the right to vote. They lost their case, but paved the way for all free men to have the right to vote by 1783.
James Forten of Philadelphia served on the privateer Royal Louis when it was captured by the British HMS Amphyon. He was twelve years old. The captain's son took a liking to Forten and asked his father to spare him. Offered a home in England, he refused, stating, "I am a prisoner for the liberties of my country. I will never, never prove a traitor to her interests." After the war, He invented a sail handling device, and later started his own sail making company to become the richest African American of his time.
Crispus Attucks was an escaped slave. His seamanship as well as his size and stature garnered him enough respect that several white sailors were willing to follow him as he attacked a line of armed British redcoats with only a stick.
The need of earlier years was reduced by the early 1900s as powerful dock unions and Jim Crow laws excluded blacks from the docks and other maritime work, and the legacy of the Black Jacks faded in the collective memory.
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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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