Published by former Mayor George Gardner March 10 2012
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George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084 |
Eminent domain goes to governor
Legislation giving the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind power of eminent domain goes to Governor Rick Scott following approval by the state Senate Friday - the last day of the 2012 legislative session.
Senator Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville, who earlier stripped from his bill language which would have eliminated requirements to cooperatively resolve issues between agencies and governments, said the longer House version would be amended to match his bill, and without debate, the measure passed unanimously.
While the school will have eminent domain powers if the governor signs the legislation, a local agreement between the city and school permanently exempts the adjacent historic Nelmar Terrace and Fullerwood Park neighborhoods and exempts the entire city for ten years.
The legislation, fought by the immediate neighborhoods and City Commission, was billed as State Representative Bill Proctor's "last hurrah" for the school he's championed for years. Proctor leaves the legislature this year under term limits. | |
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We're Havin' Fun Now!
That's the theme for next weekend's St. Augustine Lions Seafood Festival at Francis Field Friday-Sunday March 16-18.
"Eat, Shop and tap your toes while the kids are in the Zone and with the Pirates," the Lions promise.
The festival will feature great seafood, more than 100 arts and crafts exhibitors, and music including headliner Valerie Smith, a former Grammy nominee.
The Kids zone and Pirate Magic will keep the younger fans busy.
Profits will benefit Lions Club charities. Visit www.lionsfestival.com. |
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VIC market area, Plaza 'trail' eyed
City commissioners have honed discussions of vendors, street performers, and visual artists into three possible actions:
- A market area along the Visitor Center north walkway adjacent to the bus drop area
- A performer/artist "trail" diagonally through the Plaza from St. George Street to Aviles Street
- An extension of the banned areas on St. George side streets to Cordova and Charlotte streets
Expected to be presented at Monday's regular commission meeting are two ordinances, one extending the ban on street performers the full length of Hypolita Street, the second extending a ban on vending along Cuna, Hypolita, and Treasury streets and Fort Alley from the current 50 feet west to Cordova and east to Charlotte Street, and Fort Alley east to the bayfront.
The market area and Plaza trail concepts will be developed into ordinances for consideration at a later meeting.
The actions were formed Thursday in the third of three workshops on vendors, street performers and visual artists and their places in St. Augustine. | |
King Street project delay sought
Citing "the stability and viability of business operators and service providers who rely on King Street," city commissioners Monday are expected to approve a resolution asking delay of the King Street drainage project until after the 2015 end of the city's commemoration period.
The Florida Department of Transportation had planned to begin a year-long project from Malaga Street to Markland Place this month. |
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Yard sale permits proposed |
Having a yard sale? An ordinance to be considered by city commissioners Monday will require you to register and follow a set of rules. You'll be limited to four sales a year and to three consecutive days during daylight hours, no new items for resale, unsold goods must be removed immediately at the end of the sale, and sold items picked up within 24 hours. You won't need a permit if you advertise specific items (limit 10) or if you're relocating outside the city, "provided such sale is limited to one week and conducted no earlier than one month prior to departure." No charge for registration with the Planning and Building Department. |
17th century knighting ceremony Sunday |
Revisit the late 17th century Sunday as the Easter Festival Committee presents a Knighting Ceremony, this year honoring Cathy Brown, executive director of the Council on Aging, and artist Jean Wagner Troemel.
The free ceremony, complete with the pageantry of the 1600s, takes place at 2pm in the Plaza de la Constitución, and will feature the St. Augustine Easter Week Royal Trio and entertainment by the Sally Walton Dancers and Sally Walton River House Dancers. |
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History's Highlight |
Pirates - Scourge of the seas
3 years, 5 months, 30 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
March 24, 1683, 230 buccaneers land near Ponce de León Inlet, 70 miles south of San Agustín and, flying French colors, march toward the presidio. They capture the Ayamón and Matanzas watchtowers, torturing the soldados they've seized for information on the town's defenses.
The discovery of the Americas in 1492 brought new opportunities for wealth to the crowns of Europe - and to pirates, creating legends of the pirate's life romanticized today, but terrorizing at the time.
The legendary pirates we know today sailed about the Caribbean and North American settlements from the mid-1500s to the early 1700s. Here the earliest Spanish explorers discovered gold and silver to be transported to their homeland.
Laying in wait along the route, occupying some ports and raiding others, were the pirates. They were born overnight in this new world. St. Augustine Historian Eugene Lyon, in his The Enterprise of Florida, describes trouble in the French Huguenot colony, Fort Caroline, a year before Pedro Menendez' voyage to drive out the French and found St. Augustine.
"An increasing shortage of supplies and a desire for adventure provoked some of the garrison to mutiny. Eleven mutineers fled the fort first, taking a small shallop and setting course for the Caribbean. Three weeks later, on December 18, 1564, seventy men from the garrison ... departed on a voyage of adventure among the Antilles in two small sailing craft."
The pirate attack of March 24, 1683, involved French and English buccaneers from New Providence in the Bahamas, who joined forces to attack San Agustín. The buccaneers reached today's Anastasia Island, eight miles south of the town where, on March 31, they were ambushed by 30 Spanish musketeers and routed.
In the 1700s there was lively shipping between Spanish St. Augustine and English territories to the north. Each had goods the other wanted, and though each country outlawed trade, ways were found to exchange goods. But it was always a guessing game, depending on world affairs; a merchant ship one day might be a privateer or outright pirate the next.
It was piracy used as a tool in international trade conflicts - the government-sanctioned privateers - that brought about its downfall. The Declaration of Paris in 1856, signed by England, France, Spain, and most other European nations, abolished the use of piracy for state purposes.
Pirates, previously unidentified in individual or state laws, became a legally distinct category of international criminals, and piracy became and remains today an international crime.
Excerpts from 'The Pirates' in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories. Click for further information on this fascinating historic series. |
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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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