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Published by former Mayor George Gardner August 1 2012
The Report is an independent publication serving our community.
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George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084
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Planning and Zoning Board
Movie theater, bar among agenda items |  A movie theater, distillery, bar, and expanded law offices go before the city's Planning and Zoning Board Tuesday, August 7.
The monthly session begins at 2 pm in the Alcazar room at City Hall.
Paul and Rebecca Morris hope to revive the movie theater that once operated on Washington Street; a Planned Unit Development will be sought for the former Ice House property on Riberia Street to subdivide for two ownerships; Richard Josh Parks wants approval for a bar at the Local Heros Café at the north end of St. George Street, and Attorney Patrick Canan wants changes to build professional offices at US 1 and Cincinnati Avenue. |
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Son holds hammer Dad holds breath
Caught during Home Depot hands-on workshop for 5-12 year olds the first Saturday morning monthly.
The kids, decked out in Kids Workshop aprons, work on crafts they get to keep, along with a commemorative
pin and certificate of achievement.
Home Depot says the workshops teach children do-it-yourself skills and tool safety and instill a sense of pride and accomplishment. It's a great bonding opportunity for moms, dads, and grandparents as well.
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Variances, Exceptions, PUDs
keep citizen plan board busy | |
Movie theater
Back in the day a bustling Washington Street included a movie theater. The street's rough and tumble nature was calmed when the St. Francis House homeless shelter moved in, but then neighbors complained about loitering shelter clients.
Since former police officer Renee Morris became the shelter's director, things have turned around again - this time well enough for Paul and Rebecca Morris to plan a resurrection of the movie theater which has been boarded up for years.
Their application was tabled in July to try to work out a parking plan. They'd also like permission to sell alcohol as a supporting feature of the project.
Ice House
Phil McDaniel's plan to convert a portion of the former Ice House on Riberia Street into a micro-distillery would be more economically feasible with a separate business sharing the property. The often maligned Planned Unit Development (PUD), which relaxes city codes, is apparently the only way to make that subdivision into two properties.
Local Heros Café
 Local Heros Café, extending from Spanish to St. George Street at the north end of the historic district, was in the news more than a year ago with late night noise complaints.
Owner Richard Josh Parks will seek approval to allow a bar as a permissible use by exception at the property, dominated by a large courtyard and entertainment platform.
Law offices
Attorney Patrick Canan is among those professionals who rescued older in-town homes by adapting them into offices. Now his law practice needs more room, and he's planning to expand his cottage/offices at 43 Cincinnati Avenue up to the corner of US 1.
He's gotten approval from the city's Historic Architectural Review Board to demolish a 1948 building on the site, and seeks PZB approval to adjust parking requirements, reduce minimum landscaping requirements and to remove preserved trees. |
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Galleon has left the building
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 The last vestiges of a replica Spanish galleon have been removed from the Visitor Information Center as the city shakes off the past with its conversion to a 21st century exhibition hall.
City officials are negotiating on adaptive reuse of the ¾ scale ship for promotion of its 450th commemoration.
City commissioners recently approved $1,025,520 in continuing upgrades to exhibit standards, added to the $500,000 already spent on the visitor center.
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| Commentary - What's your brand? | |
In search of city identity
Armed with a $70,000 staff marketing specialist, $13,800 branding budget, and volunteers to survey 600 community members, 200 merchants and 500 visitors, city hall is on a quest for a St. Augustine brand.
A brand, or logo, is something small but readily identifiable, something like the MLB, NFL, or
Nike    swoosh (often cited by City Manager John Regan) suitable for marking 450 commemoration baubles.
(Nike's Swoosh was created in 1971 by a graphic design student, charging $2 an hour with a final bill for $35. Grateful execs gave her a gold Swoosh ring and an envelope filled with Nike stock.)
These familiar brands are protected by copyright, something a city as a public body can't do, except for its coat of arms city seal, which is why city hall's first effort, as manager of the commemoration, was the coat of arms with ragtop 450. Officials haven't addressed how they'd protect the city manager's dream swoosh.
 Perhaps the nation's oldest city's brand could be as simple as San Diego's 200th logo, representing the colonization and missions of the Spanish. But with city hall's new direction into the future (to a Report commentary that the 450 legacy is the future rather than past, city Heritage Director Dana Ste. Claire responded, "damn right!") a more appropriate brand /logo might feature Picasso.
Logo designer Dinesh http://www.dinesh.com/ describes the creation of the Nike logo and offers parodies of familiar logos on its website. How many can you identify?
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Commemorating Indian War dead | |
August 14, 1842, the US government had declared an end to the Florida Indian Wars - America's longest and most costly - and chose St. Augustine's Post Cemetery to bury the remains of officers and soldiers killed in battle.
 Saturday, August 18, The West Point Society of North Florida will present its annual Ceremony at the St. Augustine National Cemetery "to commemorate the end of the Florida Indian Wars, and to honor those, including West Point graduates, who perished in them."
Features: a reenactment campsite with descriptions of uniforms and armament of the period, display and firing of a replica of the 6 pound artillery piece that was part of Major Francis Dade's command, and the reading of a newspaper account of the 1842 proceedings by Frank Laumer of the Seminole Wars Foundation.
A luncheon will follow, featuring Robert Thrower, Tribal Preservation Officer for the Poarch Band, Creek Indians, and descendant of Major David Moniac, USMA, 1822.
The free activities open at St. Francis Barracks at 9:15, with the memorial ceremony at 11. The luncheon in the Florida National Guard Officers Club is $20 by advance reservation. Contact Joe Naftzinger (904) 461-9138 (jnatnc@aoI.com) or Greg Moore (904) 823-0696 (gregory.alvin.moore@us.army.miI)
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History's Highlight
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The interment of fallen soldiers
3 years, 1 month, 8 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
July 25, 1842, By order of Colonel William J. Worth: The remains of officers who have been killed in battle or who have died on service, including those of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers (being the command save two) who fell with Major Dade ... have been gathered and transferred to St. Augustine, where suitable vaults are constructed for the final reception. ... For this purpose sufficient pecuniary means have been raised by the voluntary subscription of the soldiers and officers of this command.
 August 14, 1842. Seven wagons drawn by "elegant" mules and each covered with an American flag carried the soldiers to their final resting place.
From Niles' National Register of September 3, 1842:
The St. Augustine News of the 20th Aug. says: The burial of Major F. L. Dade's martyr'd dead, and those officers and soldiers who have died in Florida, took place on Monday last.
At half past 10, a gun was fired from the battery in front of the green, by a detail of 3d artillery under lieutenant Churchill; when the mayor and council, the masonic fraternity, and St. Augustine City Guards, Capt. P. R. Lopez, proceeded to the St. Sebastian bridge, to await the arrival of the remains.
In a short time, the melancholy wail of music was heard in the distance - the bright glitter of arms was seen glancing among the deep green of the woods, and the wagons covered with the stars and stripes, containing all that was of the honored dead, moved slowly onward.
It was indeed a brilliant, a melancholy spectacle. On arriving at the public square, the cortege wheeled to the right, and proceeded up George street, continued down St. Francis street, when moving up Marine street they were brought to the spot appropriated for interment, the garden of St. Francis' Barracks.
The remains were removed from the funeral train amid the firing of minute guns, and the religious services were performed by the Rev. Mr. Waters, the Rev. Henry Aztell, and Mr. John Beard, Esq. A monody on the dead was pronounced by Dr. W. Whitehurst, Esq. of the masonic fraternity.
Half hour guns were fired until sunset, closing the solemnities of the day.
The tombs, three in number, erected by the troops of the post, in which the remains are deposited, are vaults each about ten feet square, surmounted by a pyramid of five feet height, rising from a grassy mound, enclosing the body of the tomb.
It is designed to cover these pyramids entirely with marble, on which will be placed the names of all other officers who have died or been killed in Florida, in addition to those deposited beneath.
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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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