Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida December 14 2010
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Commission OKs M&M Market purchase | |
City commissioners Monday approved a settlement plan including the city purchasing the M&M Market at Bridge and ML King Avenue, closed when its three co-owners were charged with multiple offenses November 4.
The settlement totals more than $300,000, including a $261,925 mortgage plus taxes and investigative fees.
The approval came on a 3-2 vote, with Commissioner Bill Leary and Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman opposed. Leary objected to $35,000 in investigative costs, fines, prosecution costs, and legal fees going to Canan Law, attorneys for the business owners, while Freeman suggested the money could be better spent on projects like restoration of Echo House.
Commissioners supporting the settlement noted that the only other viable option - going through foreclosure - could be expensive and leave the building boarded up for another two years. City Manager john Regan added that there is currently $2,100 in rental income, and private interest in reopening the market. |
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Assistance for weatherization
The current cold snap won't likely be the last this winter, and the St. Johns Housing Partnership is ready to help lower income folks seal up their homes against the cold
The weatherization assistance program is available for families of one with income of $21,660 to eight with income of $74,020 and adjustments for larger families.
Get full details on the state website, and call or email the Partnership 904.824.0902. For Hastings, Elkton, or Flagler Estates, call 904.692.3902. |
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Markland tree denial upheld |
Commissioners Monday upheld on appeal a Planning and Zoning Board (PZB) denial of a Tree Removal Permit to take down a protected 30-inch diameter live oak tree on Markland Place.
The treegrows in the middle of an 11-foot access to a building lot, what's called a "flag lot" sitting behind an existing house with the easement on one side.
The vote was 4-1, with Commissioner Errol Jones voting against after failing to get a second on his motion to allow the removal "only when building plans have been submitted and approved."
NPS not ready for land gift
The National Park Service (NPS) says it will accept the donation of city and state lands in the Colonial Spanish Quarter to build a Castillo Orientation Center - but not right now.
"They want to wait until the proposed sightseeing vehicle drop-off is completed," City Attorney Ron Brown told commissioners Monday.
The city plans to develop the drop-off on land adjacent to the site, leased from neighboring White Lion Restaurant.
Commissioners speculated NPS doesn't want to face any potential liability during the drop-off development. |
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| Pool expenses under study |
City and county officials will study the possibility of cost-effective operation of both the Galimore and Calhoun public pools, Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman reported to fellow commissioners following a meeting with county officials last week.
City Manager John Regan added that efforts will be made "to find private funding to provide 450 scholarships to 'waterproof' our kids (with swim classes) as a 450th commemoration initiative."
The county has budgeted $290,000 to operate the new Solomon Calhoun pool, and said earlier there'd be no funds left for the Galimore pool. "The city and county both share the goal of access to water for all our residents," Freeman said. "There may be ways to operate both pools."
Holiday bonuses approved
Commissioners Monday approved $28,000 in holiday bonuses for city workers, commissioners praising their consistent service and City Manager John Regan noting the bonuses "are half what they were two years ago."
The holiday bonus procedure is part of the city charter, and this year ranges from $25 for employees with less than a year's service to a $200 for 30-year veterans. |
| First America Foundation update delayed |
The city's non-profit First America Foundation, designated last summer along with $275,000 in start-up funds, was expected to make a report to commissioners Monday, but postponed to a later date.
Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman said the foundation offered to update her, "but this is something we should all be hearing."
Commissioner Bill Leary raised the question on the foundation's activities. "I feel that since its creation last August, they've gone into a tunnel," Leary said. |
| Dutch paver for brick streets |
St. Augustine should get into Dutch - specifically their paving machine that lays brick streets.
Tiger-Stone is a Dutch-made paving machine that uses gravity and an electric motor to lay stone and brick roads. It's adjustable from the width of a road to as narrow as a bike lane or walkway. The 18-foot wide machine can lay 3,229 square feet of road a day. 
A shelf is fed bricks automatically sorted and packed together by gravity and laid along a bed of sand.
Cost is surprisingly modest: $81,485 to $108,655 for machines ranging from 13 to 20 feet wide.
Then if we could figure out how to convert the diagonal laying into Henry Flagler's original horizontal pattern . . . |
| Becoming part of the oldest city |
"It is my just and proper duty to report to you sir, as one of your two most recent recruits, that all things this day beneath my waistline are sore beyond belief, that after 6 hours of sleep o'er night and  2 hrs nap through the day, I feel 210 years old, and yet all in all, I can easily see why you do these events."
Words from a North Carolinian, whose love affair with St. Augustine (". . . site of my first grade school field trip out of state 1981, first serious teen crush 1982, where I made up my mind to pursue a college major in Spanish 1987, honeymoon with my wife 1994") was extended as a new recruit in this year's Grande Illumination British Night Watch.
John David Bryant and his son, Sean, joined hundreds of living history reenactors from as far away as New York in the annual opening of the holiday season.
"St. Augustine is always a part of me," he wrote, "yet until last night, I had never felt I was a part of it. You have given me a new perspective, a new dimension on relationship. The role of being in that city last night made me a part of the oldest city in America's history, even to the end that I was part of its colonial history." |
History's Highlight
Ponce nearly lost discovery opportunity
One in a series of historic features for our 450th, researched by George Gardner
4 years, 8 months, 26 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Drawn from The Exploration of Florida and Sources on the Founding of St. Augustine by Luis Rafael Arana, former supervisory historian at the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument
Ponce de Leon would not have discovered Florida had he not promptly accepted the patent drafted by King Fernando, February 23, 1512, for the discovery and settlement of Bimini. 
The king hoped that Ponce would discover and settle one of several islands rumored to be near Puerto Rico. Because of stories told by the Indians, Ponce, the former governor of Puerto Rico, chose Bimini and remitted the proposal for colonization.
According the king's patent, Ponce would pay for the expenses of the expedition, be the governor and adelantado of Bimini and of any other lands he might discover, and exploit the wealth of the island. The king reserved for himself the construction and control of fortifications and the distribution of Indians.
But on December 10 the king informed royal officials of La Espanola that Ponce was really needed in Puerto Rico and he ordered them to cease negotiations with him and to bestow the patent on someone less interested in profit.
Ponce, however, had already gone to La Espanola, had accepted the royal terms, and had fitted out two vessels, Santa Maria de la Consolacion and Santiago, for the voyage. He registered his ships on January 29,1513, and quickly sailed for Puerto Rico where he added the San Cristobal to the expedition.
The Santa Maria carried forty one passengers including Ponce, and the Santiago twenty six. Ponce was ready to sail before the king's change of mind became generally known.
The search for Bimini would result in the discovery of Florida.
Ponce departed from the Puerto Rican coast the night of March 4, and on Easter Sunday, March 27, he sighted an island (Abaco)which he did not recognize. A few days later, on April 2, the ships approached the Florida coast, sighting land at 30° 8' north latitude. Within the next five days, Ponce landed and took possession of the territory in the name of his king. He named it La Florida since it provided a very beautiful view of many cool woodlands, it was level and uniform, and it had been discovered on Pascua Florida, the Feast of the Flowers. |
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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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