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Published by former Mayor George Gardner August 29 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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450 - Taking the lead
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Church, college focus on early history
The St. Augustine Diocese and Flagler College are moving into the area's earliest history - before as well as after 1565, in a series of events and programs.
A mass for a martyred 18th century friar, original headboard for Pedro Menendez' casket, and 7-week study of Native American life before and after first European contact have been organized by the institutions.
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Plaza concerts
Wrapping up
St. Augustine's Concerts in the Plaza wraps up its 22nd season with folk music Thursday and jazz Labor Day, September 3.
Lonesome Bert & The Skinny Lizards offer original Americana folk in the Plaza's Gazebo on Thursday at 7 pm, and Jazz Piersonified & Friends will jazz up the holiday afternoon September 3 from 1to 5 pm.
Concerts in the Plaza is produced by the City of St. Augustine with support from the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council.
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Public hearings
on city budget
Two public hearings on the City of St. Augustine's 2012-2013 budget are scheduled for Thursday, September 6 and Thursday, September 20, each starting at 5:05pm in The Alcazar Room at City Hall.
The 2012-2013 budget goes into effect with the start of the fiscal year on October 1.
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Menendez headboard returns
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The original headboard from the casket of St. Augustine Founder Pedro Menéndez will be formally returned to the Mission Nombre de Dios on as part of Landing Day ceremonies September 8 at the mission.
 | | Headboard replica in museum |
The headboard and Menendez' casket - now in the mission museum - are the only tangible artifacts related to Menéndez outside of Spain, given to St. Augustine when Menéndez' remains were reinterred in a tomb at San Nicholas Catholic Church in Avilés.
"Over time, the symbols on the 438 year old headboard, representing Menéndez' family ancestry, had darkened and some paint peeled," Diocese officials explain. "The Diocese made a commitment to restore this valuable piece of history and it was sent to an art restoration studio in Miami."
The restored headboard will be carried in a procession from the landing ceremonies to the mission museum.
Exploring Native Americans
Flagler College's Crisp-Ellert Gallery and supporting organizations Friday afternoon open Before and After 1565: A Participatory Exploration of St. Augustine's Native American History, a 7-week program of exhibits, trolley tours of Native American history, workshops on Timucuan Technology and pyrotechnology, even a stand serving the Black Drink - central to indigenous ceremonies. The program continues through October 19.
"While much of the local historical focus is placed on Spanish colonial development," Crisp-Ellert Director Julie Dickover says, "little is available to the immediate public and visiting tourist population about the thriving cultures that existed on the east coast before the arrival of European settlers."
For the complete schedule, click here.
Mass for martyred friar
Franciscan Friar Agustín Ponce de Leon will be remembered at a Memorial Mass Monday - 307 years after he died defending the lives of Guale Indian converts to Catholicism.
Bishop Felipe J. Estévez of the Diocese of St. Augustine will celebrate the Mass at 11 am at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine.
Bishop Estévez learned of Agustín from representatives of the Martyrs of La Florida Missions www.ShrineofMartyrs.com
Agustin, born in 1669 in St. Augustine, died fighting Creek Indians in 1705 in a marsh north of the city within the present-day Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve.
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Funds spark fumes at commission meet
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Discussion on handling St. Augustine's reserve funds got an early - and acrimonious - start at Monday's City Commission meeting with Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline scolding fellow
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Leary and Sikes-Kline
Historiccity.com photos
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Commissioner Bill Leary for airing concerns in a St. Augustine
Record column, Leary defending those concerns, and City Manager John Regan interjecting, "I don't think this is going anywhere good."
As Sikes-Kline and Leary sparred with different figures for the amount of reserve in the city's General Fund, Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman, sitting in for absent Mayor Joe Boles, added, to Leary, "The numbers you chose were least favorable to a commission that shares your goals."
Leary's column criticized "spending our main savings account, the General Reserve Fund (GRF), at an alarming and unsustainable rate (and) city government is unhealthily obsessed with the 450th commemorations."
Fiscal policy for reserves - monies held for unexpected events such as hurricanes, is one of the discussions planned during the city's new budget year beginning in October. And commissioners Monday set a two hour workshop for September 26 at 8:30 am to discuss city hall's management of the 450th commemoration.
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Bed tax grants go to council
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Strong organization and creativity top the list of recommendations as a funding panel makes its grant recommendations for next year to the Tourist Development Council (TDC) Thursday at 1:30 pm in the county auditorium.
Of 38 organizations that applied for grants, 22 were recommended for funding.
The St Augustine Lighthouse and Museum and Romanza drew top amounts as the panel pared down $1,163,215 in requests to $500,000 in available funds. And the St Augustine Regional Council's creative Paseo Pastel Chalk Festival for sidewalk art received most of its request.
The lighthouse will be presenting a Sea Your History Festival, while Romanza's grant will support marketing for a variety of arts events.
Among those coming away empty-handed: the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival, Easter Week Festival, Lincolnville Festival, and St. Augustine Maritime Heritage Foundation.
Grant recommendations from the TDC will go to the County Commission for final approval. The complete list of requests and recommendations is on the TDC agenda at http://www.co.st-johns.fl.us/Calendars+/index.aspx.
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History's Highlight
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The martyrdom of Fr. Augustin
3 years, 11 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
The 55-day siege of 1702 on St. Augustine is well known, but lesser known are British and Creek Indian attacks on a series of refugee missions around this presidio in the early 1700s. The heroic acts of Franciscan Friar Agustín Ponce de Leon during an attack on Nombre de Dios Chiquito north of St. Augustine will be remembered at a Memorial Mass September 3 celebrated by Bishop Felipe J. Estevez.
 From Franciscans of Florida, May 7, 1707: Fr. Agustín "fought against them until, after being shot several times, he surrendered his soul to the Creator, just as the others from his party did, fighting with bravery and effort they destroyed the enemy - even at the cost of their own lives - due to which women and children were freed. ..."
Agustín Ponce de Leon was born and baptized in St. Augustine in 1669. His father, Manuel, was a captain of the guard in St. Augustine and his grandfather served as the city's treasurer and also as an interim governor.
Agustín became a Franciscan priest and served the people at the Mission of Nombré de Dios Chiquito north of the city walls of St. Augustine. The Chiquito mission was home to the relocated remnants of the Guale Indians who had retreated south from Santa Catalina/Santa Maria on Amelia Island in 1702.
The mission was abandoned in 1740 after an English siege on St. Augustine because it was slightly more distant than other refugee missions.
In September 1705, the mission was attacked and some 80 women and children carried off as slaves. Fr. Agustín pursued the captors with the help of Captain Vegambré, captain of the guard in St. Augustine, and his men. They were able to come up on the group at dawn on the third of September.
A report by Capt. Bernardo Nieto de Carvajal in 1707: "(Captain Vegambré) then followed the order to pursue the enemy troop with whom he had an important encounter on the 3rd of September 1705 at dawn in which said Capitan was killed along with eighteen infantry men and six Indians. During the scuffle, and taking advantage of the confusion, close to sixty people: men, women and children of the town and several black and mulatto slaves - who happened to be in that town at the time the enemy came upon it - were able to escape ...."
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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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