Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida April 5 2011 |
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Mooring Fields response 'very positive' | |
Installation of 165 moorings in St. Augustine harbor and Salt Run was just in time for the southward migration of boaters last fall, and General Services Director Jim Piggott expects a busy season through early June as those boaters make the homeward trek north.
"Since opening October 1, the Mooring Fields program has brought more than 1,000 reservations," Piggott says. "During the first three months of operation the new moorings were host to over 700 boats visiting St. Augustine. The response from visiting boaters has been very positive.
"With boaters, much information is 'word of mouth' and it's gotten much talk throughout the boating community, what a positive experience the moorings have made to the Matanzas Harbor," Piggott says.
Reservations can be made at the Marina office by email or 904.825.1026.
Enactment of a harbor management plan, including the mooring fields, followed five years of preparation and public hearings. |
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Mark Twain
. . . and More
Before the stage sets, before the wardrobes and makeup, come hours of rehearsal, usually in bland settings, for the many productions which are part of St. Augustine's culture.
Here, stage veteran Holly Mulkey caught Don Runk and Daisye Tutor as Mark Twain and his daughter, rehearsing for A Classic Theatre's Mark Twain...and More to be staged Thursday through Saturday in the courtyard of the Ximenez-Fatio House on Aviles Street.
Lonesome Bert and the Skinny Lizards kick things off at 7, with performance at 7:30.
Reservations for tickets ($20 general; $18 seniors, and $10 students) by email or call 904.824.6995. |
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Mooring program exceeds city's revenue projections | |
General Services Director Jim Piggott told city commissioners last fall he was optimistic the mooring fields program would pay for itself while making the city's waterways safer.
Today he reports, "The city has exceeded its revenue projections to date by approximately 5% and we now estimate that annual revenue will exceed the estimate by approximately 15%."
Overnight mooring is $20 per night, the fee including dinghy dockage, private restroom facilities, boater lounge, laundry facility, free sewage pumpout at mooring ball anchorage, and a limited tender service for transportation to and from the vessel.
Piggott says the pumpout service, both from the dock and a pumpout vessel, is in itself a success story.
"In the last quarter the marina and mooring fields pumped out over 12,000 gallons of sewage from vessels," he says. "That's sewage that did not end up in our waterways."
The Municipal Marina also offers pumpout services to vessels anchored outside the permitted mooring fields and within city waters at $5 per pumpout.
Derelict vessels cleared
An aggressive campaign to clear the city's waterways of abandoned, derelict or improperly stored vessels has resulted in the city's being able to announce, "In the month of February there were no derelict vessels reported in City waterways."
Over the past five years, more than 50 vessels have been removed at a cost of $125,000. Those costs were shared by the St. Augustine Port, Waterway and Beach District Commission and the City.
Those derelict vessels were a major part of the realization that a safe managed waterway was needed.
"The City of St. Augustine is the 'front door' to Florida for many boaters making the annual migration south in the fall," General Services Director Jim Piggott says.
"The managed waterway, mooring fields, local marinas, maritime waterfront facilities and of course the attraction of the city itself, all make St. Augustine a waterfront and waterway destination." |
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800 boxes of artifacts fill Archaeology Center | |
Months of restoration work on a former city warehouse, and weeks of moving 800 boxes of artifacts collected from more than 600 archaeological sites in the city over the past 25 years, culminated in dedication last week of the Dr. Sue A. Middleton Archaeology Center.
The 2,400 square foot center on Pellicer Lane became available when warehousing was moved to a new building, and it's named to recognize the late Dr. Sue A. Middleton, who willed her Davis Shores home to the city's archaeology program.
The permanent home for Halbirt and his volunteer team, after years of inadequate space, "is evidence of the city's commitment to archaeology," Halbirt said. |
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Rocking Ship Bar rattled visitors | |
The recent Report item on Marineland's historic Rocking Ship Bar rekindled memories for one reader, who tells of his stop for a drink while fishing one hot afternoon.
"I was in bathing trunks and a tee shirt. I figured no one would be at the Marineland bar in the mid afternoon hours and I was correct.
"I ordered a drink and a few minutes later a couple came in from touring Marineland and stood nearby at the bar and ordered their drinks.
"The bartender started to fix their drinks and clicked the ship's rocking motion on as he worked.
"Well, all hell broke loose. The woman screamed and threw herself under a table while the man ran outside into the open.
"It seems these travelers had recently been through an earthquake and thought that another one was happening.
"She promptly chewed out her husband for leaving her alone, under the table." |
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History's Highlight
Museum acknowledges portrait of Osceola's wife
4 years, 5 months, 4 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
"An enquiry last year to the Lynn Museum from a researcher in the USA has led to the mystery behind the King's Lynn 'Pocahontas' portrait being solved."
The spring newsletter of King's Lynn Museum in Norfolk, England, referred to Bill Ryan of Palm Coast, whose focus on Florida's Seminole Period included authoring Osceola, His Capture and Seminole Legends. An engraving, The Wife and Child of Osceola, was included from an 1848 edition of Illustrated London News.
Diane Marquis, past president of the Flagler County Historical Society, told Bill she had seen the image before, but the image she saw was in a painting and entitled "Pocahontas."
That set Bill on an internet search and discovery of the "Pocahontas" painting in a small museum in King's Lynn, a sea port and market town in the ceremonial county of Norfolk in the East of England.
The museum newsletter continued, "This world-famous portrait until now believed to bear Pocahontas and her son Thomas Rolfe, has resided in the King's Lynn Town Hall since 1990 . . .
"Art experts had more recently examined the painting and described it as by an unknown artist of the 'American School, circa 1800.' The painting, if it depicted Pocahontas who died in 1622, was clearly not a contemporary portrait. Why then was it painted and did the artist really mean to depict Pocahontas? Or was it a portrait of two different people painted from life?
"The solution to these questions has lain quietly in a copy of the "Illustrated London News" for over 160 years, just waiting to be discovered.
"We have virtually no information about Pe-o-ka, and this painting is the only known image of her. What happened to her after her husband, Osceola, was captured and died in prison, is not known.
"Now that the true identity of the two people in the painting is known, a missing piece of the Jigsaw in the proud history of the Seminole Native American People of Florida has been found. Further research may well reveal more fascinating insights into the history of the painting and of Pe-o-ka and her son. |
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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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