Published by the Department of Public Affairs, City of St. Augustine. Florida July 12 2011 |
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City Addressing Spanish Quarter Financial Issues
Funding only committed to end of September
St. Augustine's Colonial Spanish Quarter, being shored up with $440,000 from the city's general fund this year and facing a projected $706,000 deficit in the fiscal year beginning in October, will possibly close at the end of September unless an equity partner can be found to help keep it operating.
"We tried," Heritage Director Dana Ste. Claire told commissioners after describing increased expenses in efforts to reinvigorate the living history museum. At the same time, the $400,000 drawn from rental of state properties under city management was lost when the University of Florida took over management last year.
Debate consumed the last two hours of a five-hour meeting, during which commissioners called for bids to create a mold of the Spanish constitution monument in the plaza, supported St. Paul AME Church's interest in taking over Lincolnville's Excelsior building, approved in-street crossings plan, and discussed streamlining an official logo for products and employing fundraisers for the 450th commemoration. | |
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Meteorologists are predicting an active hurricane season for 2011, with more impact on the U.S. coastline than last year.
Forecasted are a total of 15 named tropical storms, eight reaching hurricane status and four major hurricane status.
In a normal year, there are ten tropical storms, six becoming hurricanes and two major hurricanes.
The historic 2010 season had a total of 19 named storms and ranks as the third most active season on record, but there was little impact on the United States coastline.
Tips on preparing for the season, as well as a list of the hurricane/tropical storm names, areon the city website.
Image: Prediction columns from AccuWeather.com, NOAA, and average year |
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City seeks equity partner | |
The Colonial Spanish Quarter was established as an enterprise fund, which means its expenses should be covered by revenues.
The options, Ste. Claire suggested:
Ø Partial closure, leaving the profitable Taberna (tavern) and gift shops open;
Ø Conversion to a static museum;
Ø Continued investment of city funds,
Ø A public/private partnership.
Pat Croce, whose pirate museum adjoins the Spanish Quarter, was mentioned as a possible equity partner. However, the City will initiate a request for qualifications from interested partners.
Debate on closing comes a week before the federal St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission gathers here to organize assistance for the city's commemoration.
Commissioners approved the $150,000 expense to keep the Quarter open through the end of September.
Closure of the Quarter will carry its own expense, Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield told commissioners. "There are items like accumulated sick and vacation days that would have to be covered, and unemployment matches.
"The total could be $334,000" he said.
Burchfield explained that, of the five city enterprise funds, all but the Heritage Department have reserves to cover such expenses. "But this department has never been able to build up a reserve." |
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Monument replicas in trade with Cadiz, Aviles | |
Replicas of the Spanish constitution monument in the plaza will be provided to the Spanish cities of Cadiz and Aviles, in exchange for access to voluminous Spanish colonial archives in Cadiz and a replica model of Pedro Menendez' flagship San Pelayo from Aviles.
Funding will be sought from private sector sources.
City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline said one estimate to create a mold was $21,500. The monuments could be cast here or the mold sent to Spain for casting at each city.
Aviles is St. Augustine Founder Pedro Menendez' birthplace, while Cadiz was a trade center for the colonial Spanish Empire. |
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Church considers Excelsior building | |
St. Paul AME Church has the City Commission's blessing to negotiate with the county to take over the historic Excelsior building on Martin Luther King Avenue.
The former black school building is owned by the state and under lease to the county, which uses a portion for its Housing Authority while another section is maintained by the Friends of Excelsior for a museum and after school programs.
The county announced at a recent city/county workshop its plans to pull out of the building, and asked the city to consider taking it over. While commissioners Monday were reluctant, Pastor Ron Rawls of St. Paul, supported by Reverend Ron Stafford of Pastors United, said his church would like to use the property for its proposed School of Excellence.
Commissioner Errol Jones insisted that, should negotiations for the public/private venture fail, the city reconsider use of the property. "This is a significant part of our history," he said. |
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City to negotiate lone proposal for building | |
The city will negotiate with a lone bidder to lease, repair, and put the North City Water Works building to use for community gatherings.
An extended period to request bids was proposed when officials thought there was incomplete advertising.
Colin Bingham, who proposed to the commission last month that the property could be repaired for community meetings, made the lone bid to lease it for $350 for an initial undetermined term, with 30-year renewal options. A non-profit Community Development Coalition Corporation would be created to enter into agreement with the city, Bingham says.
Progress for St. Francis House
While a proposal to provide additional beds for transient and/or indigent persons was dropped from Monday's City Commission agenda, St. Francis House Director Renee Morris was able to report "marked improvements to the neighborhood and our relationships."
Neighboring St. Mary's Church, an earlier foe of the homeless shelter, has leased a property adjacent to St. Francis House for transitional housing, and Morris' staff and residents have painted and spruced up its grounds.
"Our relationships with the neighborhood are much improved," Morris assured commissioners. |
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San Sebastian bridge project begins | |
Residents - and motorists - got a look Monday at plans for replacement of the San Sebastian River Bridge on Ponce de Leon Boulevard (US 1) north of King Street - a project being accelerated to avoid conflicting with events of St. Augustine's 450th commemoration.
A Design Build team is contracted at $13.5 million to complete the project by Spring, 2013. The public information session was held from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. in The Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Building embankment work is under way. By September, crews begin reconstructing medians and removing curb in preparation for shifting the bridge's four traffic lanes east to accommodate construction of the new bridge.
The new structure will be shifted slightly from its current location to allow continued four-lane flow during construction.
The current bridge's 9-inch curb separating pedestrians and travel lanes will be replaced with a 2 1/2 foot high barrier. |
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450 logo, website in workshop | |
Logo designs, a web site, and plans for the federal 450th Commemoration Commission's inaugural meeting here next Monday occupied city commissioners in a workshop before their regular meeting Monday.
City Manager John Regan called on his staff to describe details of the adopted logo and said he'll have branding experts at the next 450 workshop in two weeks to present concepts for a more "avant-garde" logo to be authorized for products in the commemoration.
Heritage Director Dana Ste. Claire said an official website, www.staugustine-450.com, is up and running, and Public Affairs Director Paul Williamson promised efforts to provide an opportunity for city and federal commissioners to meet during the federal panel's stay here.
As Williamson described the federal commission meeting, from 10-noon next Monday at the Flagler College auditorium as primarily organizational, Commissioner Bill Leary said, "I hope a second meeting can be arranged soon, when we can discuss what they plan and what we hope for." |
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History's Highlight
Tourism preserves city's history
4 years, 1 month, 28 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary | |
"It is remarkable that the sites have survived at all, given their high, water-view, property value and the changes in the waterways of St. Augustine wrought by the Corps of Engineers and others over the years," Archaeologist Kathy Deagan writes in the preface to a 1994 report on excavations to document the earliest settlement and forts of St. Augustine. "It is both unusual and ironic that in spite of the tremendous development for tourism along the coastal areas of St. Augustine over the past 50 years," Dr. Deagan writes, "these crucial sites have been protected by tourism!
"The Fountain of Youth Park has been a historical tourist attraction for nearly a century and the La Leche Shrine is a mecca for Catholic tourists and pilgrims, and has been left as a sanctuary.
"And now there is strong evidence that the birthplace of St. Augustine lies under these grounds."
Researchers have been searching for the Menéndez forts for more than sixty years, historians and archaeologists collaborating with documents and on-site artifacts.
While research continues, Dr. Deagan was able to write in 1994 of the first fortification, a Timucuan longhouse, damaged by fire and then repaired, and, "Later that summer (of 1566) a relief fleet arrived with supplies and they built a more substantial triangular fort, with three cavaliers, a high wooden gun platform and an encircling trench. 
"At the La Leche Shrine site we were able to relocate the moat feature, and follow it in certain. There is now no doubt that it was both constructed and filled in during the sixteenth century. It appears to describe a triangle oriented roughly southwest to northeast, with the one fully exposed south side measuring more than 30 meters (about 98 feet) in length.
"Remarkably, (today's) rustic altar is located approximately in its center.
"The western leg of the moat triangle, unfortunately, is badly disturbed by large trees and modern graves, and its northern terminus may be under Ocean Avenue. The eastern side of the moat, paralleling the waterfront, has probably been largely destroyed by dredging and filling activities in the 1930's and 1940's." |
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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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