Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida October 8 2010
|
Noise, Galimore pool on city agenda |
Reports on the city's noise ordinance, the Galimore Center, Florida Department of Transportation plans to replace the San Sebastian River bridge on US 1, and reconnecting the Castillo and the Bayfront are on Monday's City Commission agenda.
The regular meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, and will be preceded by a commission workshop at 3:30 to discuss a claim for $3.4 million by Donna and Scott Wendler after city denial of plans to demolish seven properties along King and Oviedo streets for a boutique hotel. |
|
|
|
Honoring Haiti's
contributions
On October 9, 1779, a force of more than 500 Haitian gens de couleur libre (free men of color) joined American colonists and French troops in an unsuccessful push to drive the British from Savannah in coastal Georgia.
That battle, and contributions of Haitians in the American Revolution, will be celebrated Saturday in Savannah, at the 3rd Anniversary of the Haitian Memorial Monument, and Sunday in St. Augustine, with a visit to the gravesite of Haitian General Jorge Biassou at Tolomato Cemetery.
In Savannah, St. Augustine actor/playwright James Bullock will recount the life of Haitian leader Biassou, and St. Augustine Vice Mayor Errol D. Jones will be honored for his contributions to the Haitian community.
In St. Augustine, a delegation will visit Tolomato Cemetery, where Biassou was buried in an unmarked grave in 1801. A marker is planned in Biassou's honor at the cemetery.
Image: www.haitixchange.com |
|
|
City to discuss response to Wendler hotel claim | | Donna and Scott Wendler claim a $3.4 million financial loss due to the city's denial of their demolition request. They filed a Notice of Intent to Seek Relief under the Bert Harris Private Property Protection Act. The city has to respond to their claim by November 1.
City Attorney Ron Brown, at a 3:30 p.m. workshop Monday, will outline eleven categories of possible response, ranging from approval of the plan or compensation to no change in the city's action. The Wendlers and their legal counsel will also be presenting their case.
The commission will consider preparing a response at its regular meeting beginning at 5. |
|
Noise ordinance in review | The city's noise ordinance, debated and adjusted in recent years, has regained the stage with complaints about a Spanish Street restaurant drawing an estimated 75 to 300 patrons and late night noise.
Complaints from neighboring inns and police calls to Local Heroes were discussed at the commission's last meeting. City Attorney Ron Brown Monday will ask for commission direction on possible modifications to the current noise ordinance.
The current ordinance is based on noise meter readings. Commissioners have in the past discussed and rejected a "reasonable hearing" method. |
Bridge replacement
a matter of timing
Commissioners, concerned that the planned San Sebastian bridge replacement on US 1 north of King Street won't be completed before the commemoration period begins, tabled an easement agreement for the project at its last meeting.
Monday, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will make its case, outlining its work schedule. Public Works Director Martha Graham said at that last meeting that FDOT "is trying to accelerate the project." | |
Reconnecting Castillo & Bayfront
Planning and design elements for a better connection between the Castillo and the city, across a four-lane highway, will be presented to commissioners Monday by Jeremy Marquis of Halback Design Group.
It's the first phase of a Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks grant program, involving data collection, research, and assessment. | |
|
|
|
| Lincolnville assesses its pool | |
 Corporate sponsorship, redirected programming, user fees, fundraising events, even that half mill rate, dropped by the airport this year - redirected to a "quality of life trust" for county recreation.
General Services Director Jim Piggott will report to commissioners Monday on last Tuesday's community workshop at the Galimore Center, chaired by City Manager John Regan with some 50 residents and city and county officials, as they wrestled with how to fund $230,000 a year for pool operations.
While the Galimore pool and recreation areas of the Eddie Vickers facility have been maintained by the county under an interlocal agreement executed in 2002, that agreement expires next year, and Regan said, "The decision's been made to run only the Solomon Calhoun Center."
The county proposes to bring the pool into compliance and turn it over to the city.
County officials said the county recreation budget totals $3 million, of which $700,000 goes to sports lighting alone, and user fees bring in only about $20,000.
|
| Comprehensive Plan change clears state review | Commissioners in July approved on first reading a proposed ordinance to move actions under Architectural Guidelines for Historic Preservation (AGHP) from our Comprehensive Plan to the City Commission level. It was prompted by a desire to allow building styles other than Spanish Colonial in Historic Preservation District 1, south of the Plaza.
But with the guidelines in the comprehensive plan, each change would require lengthy state review.
A ruling by the state Department of Community Affairs has cleared the way to move the ordinance to a public hearing and final action Monday. Relieved that such a move would keep decision-making here, but still concerned about hasty decisions, commissioners have included a lengthy local hearing procedure in the ordinance.
A second public hearing and action Monday would add a ban on any type of panhandling after dark to a recently passed panhandling ordinance. |
|
History's Highlight Tolomato Cemetery dates to late 1500s
One in a series of historic features for our 450th, researched by George Gardner.
Tolomato Cemetery's history will be discussed Saturday morning at 10
in the meeting room of the new Mission of Nombre de Dios museum.
4 years, 11 months, 1 day to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
The wooden headstones and markers are gone now, lost to the elements of time. Some names on surviving vaults and box tombs of stone or brick have also disappeared.
Only church records can attest to the earliest burials in the late 1500s, two hundred years before the United States was established.
The size of its canopied grounds belies this final resting place of more than 1,000 over three centuries. Burials are believed to have extended under today's Cordova Street and behind the chapel and to the north. Tolomato Cemetery was originally the site of a Franciscan mission just outside the city walls, home to Guale Indians from the Tolomato mission in Georgia.
With British occupation in 1763, remaining Indians and other mission residents left for Cuba with the Spanish population, and burials ceased. But in 1777, Catholic Menorcans fleeing Dr. Andrew Turnbull's failed indigo plantation at New Smyrna were given permission to use the cemetery, and burials resumed.
With reoccupation by the Spanish in 1783, the cemetery was once again used for Catholic burials. In 1884, burials within the city were prohibited for health reasons, and both Tolomato and Huguenot cemeteries - the latter for all faiths - were closed, though a few clandestine burials occurred in later years.
The chapel was built in 1853 for Father Felix Varela, intellectual author of Cuban independence. When St. Augustine's first bishop, Augustin Verot, died in 1876, the remains of Fr. Varela were removed from the crypt and placed on a cushion at the back of the chapel, later to be removed to Cuba. His place was taken by the body of the bishop.
In 1985, the bishop himself was moved to his own tomb in the center of the property, leaving the chapel empty except for occasional memorial masses. Tolomato Cemetery is the final resting place for Fr. Miguel O'Reilly, the city's first Cathedral pastor, and General Jorges Biassou, hero of Haitian independence. Fr. Pedro Camps and Fr. Narciso Font, Catalan-speaking priests who served the Menorcans, were also first buried at Tolomato.
The cemetery is the property of the Cathedral-Basilica of St. Augustine, and a Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association has been formed for its support. |
|
|
|
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 |
|
|
