Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida March 1 2011 |
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$18 million bond issue approved | |
St. Augustine's City Commission Monday approved a pared down bond issue for capital improvement projects.
The $18 million figure was reduced from $22.5 million as officials studied more current estimates of the city's cash flow. Of the $18 million, $15.4 million will go toward projects, the balance toward anticipated fees and closing costs.
The city's bond underwriter, Mitch Owens of RBC Capital Markets, said the city has an excellent bond rating, while Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield said high priority was given to the city's ability to carry the bonded debt without raising property taxes.
Officials hope to go into the marketplace in the next two weeks and close on the bond sale by the end of April.
Among projects cut in the trimmed list is a new fire station on Anastasia Island. Burchfield said the city hopes to adjust other project funding to provide $30,000 for hurricane shuttering of the station.
Projects and amounts include Riberia Street $6.7 million, utility improvements $5 million, Municipal Marina dredging and breakwater $2.5 million, and $1.2 million for Riberia Street landfill bulkhead, wayfinding signage, and sidewalk and street improvements. |
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Searle raids city again
St. Augustine moves from last weekend's 16th century Noche de Gala, celebrating Founder Pedro Menendez' birthday, to the 17th century this weekend with the Sack of St. Augustine by the pirate Robert Searle in 1668.
Visit the military encampment Saturday 10-5 at Fountain of Youth Park and the reenact-ment itself beginning at 5 in the Plaza and battling along St. George Street to the City Gate and redoubt on Orange Street.
Events and locations are free.
Townspeople, garrison soldiers, Native Americans, and buccaneers are all part of this living history corps, along with Men of Menendez and Drake's Men companies of the non-profit Historic Florida Militia.
Visit the Searle's Buccaneers website for details.
Photo: Reenactors bring Searle's Raid to life. |
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Carriage permit increase
'protects current businesses' | |
St. Augustine's City Commission reacted favorably at a workshop Monday to increasing horse carriage permits to 30 and reporting "spontaneous" off-route charters after the fact.
Commissioner Bill Leary proposed two amendments to tackle concerns in the long-debated ordinance proposal.
An increase from an earlier proposed 25 permit limit to 30 would allow Murphy McDaniel, who currently holds 43 permits, to obtain 15 permits in the new system, while entitling Cushion Carriage and C.B. Hinson, holders of two and one permits respectively, to obtain that same number while applying for additional available permits.
Leary said this "protects existing businesses, which have made significant investment and are ambassadors for our community."
Commissioners appeared to favor as well a weekly reporting system in which permit holders notify the city manager of both planned charters for the week ahead and charters unreported in the previous week.
The commission cannot take official action in a workshop, but Assistant City Attorney Carlos Mendoza will work the amendments into the proposed ordinance for action at a future regular meeting.
Workshop March 14 for
Bayfront traffic design
A bayfront redesign tentatively approved by city commissioners two weeks ago will go to a workshop before the commission's next regular meeting March 14.
While City Manager John Regan said the St. Johns Chamber of Commerce sought discussion in a letter to his office, commissioners were quick to call for the workshop, particularly Commissioners Bill Leary, who said he's found additional traffic problems in the plan, and Leanna Freeman, who revised her earlier thinking that reducing a section of northbound traffic to one lane would be acceptable.
Leary was the lone vote against the plan two weeks ago, but Freeman voted in favor only after assurances commissioners would have opportunities to reconsider the plan when cost estimates and a grant application are prepared.
The planning study, "Reconnecting the Castillo & the Bayfront," is be conducted by Halback Design Group through a Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks grant. The Sarbanes program focuses on improved traffic flow around national parks and monuments. |
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Dining out - 2000 years ago | |
Florida's a great place for dining out - always has been, even thousands of years ago, as Florida's archaeologists posit in their poster and theme for Archaeology Month 2011: Native Peoples - Native Plants.
The St. Augustine Archaeological Association Monthly Meeting tonight will honor that theme with a talk by Dr. Michele Williams: Weeds and Seeds: Dining out 2000 Years Ago in South Florida.
The program begins at 7 p.m. in the Flagler Room at Flagler College. That Archaeology Month poster - designed by St. Augustine artist Jeanie Fitzpatrick - will also be available at the session.
At Monday's City Commission meeting, archaeology volunteers Tom Kehn and Bob McKinney were honored, Kehn for 17 years of service and McKinney 13.
Florida Archaeology Month 2011"explores how native peoples used plants and how archaeologists investigate plant use by prehistoric societies," according to the website. |
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History's Highlight
Sack of San Augustín, 1668 4 years, 6 months, 8 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
May 28, 1668, the Spanish presidio of San Agustín awaits the arrival of a supply ship bringing flour from Veracruz. The ship anchors two leagues off the inlet.
That evening a second, smaller ship, the local frigate that left for Havana 50 days earlier, is sighted.
Both these ships were expected, and cause no alarm.
It's not realized that both have been captured by the pirate Captain Robert Searle. 
As night descends, more than 100 pirates slip into boats to coast up the San Sebastian River to the uninhabited side of the city and attack at daybreak.
At 1 a.m., detected by a solder who sounds the alarm, the pirates storm ashore.
Shouting, cursing bands scatter through the narrow streets, seizing or shooting frightened, half-naked inhabitants as they emerge from their houses. The senior officer of the presidio's garrison, aroused at his home, leads 130 bewildered men, women, and children - including 70 unarmed soldiers - to safety in the woods.
For an hour and a half, the corsairs storm the fortress walls, only to be driven back by heavy musket fire. Firing at the glowing matchcords carried by the Spanish musketeers, the brigands kill five and wound five more. They finally withdraw, with 11 men dead and 19 wounded.
The raiders systematically sack San Agustín. The king's treasury yields 138 silver marks; the royal warehouses are emptied of 760 yards of sail canvas and 25 pounds of wax candles intended for Mass.
On the afternoon of May 29, the governor sends out two parties of 25 men each to drive the pirates from the city. They are unaware that only 40 buccaneers are still ashore. After receiving fire that wounds both party commanders, the governor recalls them "so that the enemy would not kill them as if they were sheep."
That evening the remaining pirates row back to their ships. The sack of San Agustín has lasted 20 hours and left a grief-stricken people - 60 of their relatives and friends are dead.
Searle's raid prompts plans for construction on a strong fortress, the Castillo de San Marcos, which begins four years later. |
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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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