Published by former Mayor George Gardner February 22 2012
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George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084 |
Dancing behind the scenes
Proctor bills in Senate
Former State Representative Doug Wiles (1996-2004) says this is the stage at which "there's lots of dancing behind the scenes" in the closing days of the 2012 state legislative session, scheduled to close March 9.
Senate and House bills to provide eminent domain for the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind are both in the Senate today and could meet in the Senate Community Affairs Committee.
House Bill 1037, providing vesting of school properties and insulation from St. Augustine city codes as well as eminent domain, was passed by the House last week and sent to Messages to the Senate.
"It would likely be referred to the Senate Community Affairs Committee," Wiles says.
And Senate Bill 1348, stripped of all but the eminent domain provision, has been assigned to that committee, and could be on next week's agenda.
The city has hired a lobbyist to work against the legislation or at least exclude St. Augustine from the threat of eminent domain. The Senate Education Committee last week deferred to the Community Affairs Committee an exclusion proposal.
"This is where a good lobbyist is so important," says Wiles, "one well connected with legislators and their staffs. The city has picked a good one in Dave Ramba. The ($250 an hour for Ramba) is money well spent."
He noted language in the Proctor legislation could also be tucked into another bill - "a bill that's too important to ignore. That's where your lobbyist and his resources are so important," Wiles says. | |
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Sharrow
the bridge
Sharrow: a street marking placed in the center of a travel lane to indicate that a bicyclist may use the full lane.
The name is a merge of share and arrow, and it's used on narrow travel areas, like the Bridge of Lions, where the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is painting the markings.
Bicyclists can now cross the bridge in traffic, with the same rights as vehicles.
"Bicyclists who are uncomfortable riding in traffic can still ride on the bridge sidewalk, as long as they yield to pedestrians," FDOT says. |
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Sunday Concert musical
message to Tallahassee | |
Macaris Street resident Mick Stevens, in the shadow of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, has prepared a response to House sponsor Doug Broxson's calling opposition to the Proctor bills "a few grouchy neighbors." 
A free concert Sunday afternoon, starting at 1 pm, at the home of James Register on Genoply Street, "whose house is the only one remaining on the Genoply block bought up by FSDB," Stevens notes.
"We need to get the attention of the politicians in Tallahassee who aren't aware of the situation from the standpoint of the people affected, who have been given short shrift by the bill's promoters and even been denied the right to speak there in the recent past" says Mick, whose editorial cartoons have also drawn attention. www.mickstevens.com
"Make a placard. Dance and sing. Show the school and Tallahassee that we're more than a handful of upset citizens in St. Augustine." |
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Artists/entertainers in 2nd workshop |
City commissioners will take up visual artists and street performers Thursday from 4-6 pm in the second of a series of workshops on regulation of street activity. The workshop is in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Two weeks ago, commissioners called for a study of extending no vending zones along St. George side streets, a comprehensive plan for vendors, street performers, and artists, and a map of potential sites for a vendor market.
This session will include public comment and discussion on street performers at 4 pm, and visual artists at 5 pm.
The workshops were prompted by concerns about a vendor on Hypolita Street and the increase in vendors on the Visitor Center grounds, and has extended to a complete review of "incremental" regulation over time. |
Open house for King Street project |
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) will hold a construction open house Monday, February 27, to discuss phase two of the King Street drainage improvement project scheduled to begin in March.
It's scheduled for 2:30 - 4:30 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall. FDOT and construction staff will have design plans and answer questions.
Phase two stretches from Malaga Street, where the previous drainage reconstruction project was completed in May, 2011, to Markland Place near the post office.
The drainage reconstruction will help alleviate some of the flooding along this section of King Street. The project will include working several feet beneath the roadway. Eastbound traffic will be detoured from this section during most of the project.
Masci Construction, Inc. will handle the year-long project at a cost of $1.56 million. Contact Laurie.Sanderson@AtkinsGlobal.com 1.800.475.0044. |
Create-a-Toy Contest déjà vu |
Adam and Janine Morley aren't trying to run their AnJ Recycling Services out of business through a contest to turn trash into toys; it's a fun way to raise awareness to recycling.
The partners in marriage and business will host a Create-a-Toy Contest April 14 in the St. Augustine Record SR 207 parking lot, reprising an annual event at the former Charlotte Street Toy Shop in the mid 1990s.
For George and Sally Gardner, it's multi-déjà vu. Adam was a regular "creator" at their toy shop, and Janine was George's instructor/partner in a Dancing with the Local Stars fundraiser in 2008.
The fun event is for kids16 and under, and Adam might even offer kids and parents some tips from his "prizewinning" experiences. Details and registration at www.anjrecycling.com. |
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An original St. Augustine shrimp boat being converted to a 16th century caravel - and back
How do you represent St. Augustine's earliest ships while preserving its later age of shrimp boats?
For Dan Holiday, it's simple. With the hulls of the two periods very similar, you carefully remove the modern elements of the Apple Jack, St. Augustine's last  wooden hull shrimp boat, add caravel features to create a "maritime float" for the 450th commemoration, then restore the shrimp boat elements for its preservation, representing St. Augustine's shrimping and boat-building era.
With support and captaincy by Apple Jack owner Kent Thomas, Holiday and a team including Bob Hall, Tom Rahner, Brian Bowman, and Scott Manny figured a $22,000 project cost and April 2013 completion date. But breaks by suppliers and volunteer help may shorten both.
Fundraising ranges from $100 to $500 to join a 100-member "plank crew," authorized to board the vessel. The work can be seen at the St. Augustine Marine Center on Riberia Street.
The Apple Jack will become the "Manzana," Spanish for apple. |
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History's Highlight |
Perils at sea in Menendez voyage
3 years, 6 months, 18 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Excerpts from the memoir of Father Francisco Lopez, principal priest on Pedro Menendez' voyage in the summer of 1565, which began from the Canary Islands July 8.
Up to Friday, the 20th, we had very fine weather, but at ten o'clock that day a violent wind arose, which by two in the afternoon had become the most frightful hurricane one could imagine.
The sea, which rose to the very clouds, seemed about to swallow us up alive. ...Very often the sea washed completely over the deck where we were gathered, one hundred and twenty men, having no other place to go as there was only one between-decks, and that was full of biscuit, wine, and other provisions. 
Most of the reserve rigging and the great ship's cable were cast overboard, and still the waves continued to break over us. The admiral then resolved to throw all the chests of the men into the sea, but the distress of the soldiers was so great that I felt constrained to throw myself at his feet and beg him not to do it.
... (Mid-August) It appears that (another) storm had injured also our first galley which, being near the shore when the hurricane began, suffered so considerably that all the ship's company made their last confessions and expected every minute to be their last. A severe gust of wind snapped off their foremast, and blew it overboard with the sail and rigging. As many of the ropes were fastened to the sheets, it caused the ship to lean so that twice they saw their topmast dip under the waves.
At the same time, parts of the topsides were broken, as well as the mainmast. The ship's company, being unable any longer to control the sails and finding themselves likely to perish, gave themselves up to the will of the waves until God, in His good mercy, permitted them to reach this haven.
In the port of St. John's of Porto Rico, the general purchased twenty-four horses and a ship to transport fifty men, whom the King had commanded to be taken from this island. The very day we set sail, this ship sprung a leak, and the danger of foundering was so imminent that, in order to save the men, it became necessary to lighten her by throwing overboard a large quantity of merchandise.
Seeing that this produced but little effect, it became necessary also to throw over the horses.
Twenty-three were either lost in this way or died during the voyage, so that but one arrived in Florida.
Father Lopez' memoir is summarized in The Voyage, in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories.
Click for further information on this fascinating historic series.
Image: Caravel in El Bachiller Enciso voyage, 1510 |
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The St. Augustine Report is published weekly, with additional Reports previewing City Commission meetings as well as Special Reports. The Report is written and distributed by George Gardner, St. Augustine Mayor (2002-2006) and Commissioner (2006-2008) and a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com |
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