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Published by former Mayor George Gardner                 January 12 2013
The Report is an independent publication serving our community.
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George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084

From rails to bells - Grand (re)Opening 

    Flagler rail cars If you're up early enough this morn, greet Henry Flagler's rail cars (vintage 1940s) at Palmer Street just west of US 1 at 9 am, debarking dignitaries to carriages to take them to the opening of his grand Hotel Ponce de Leon.

   The opening of the hotel on its 125th anniversary begins at 9:30 - open to all - and continues until 2 pm, when its end will be signaled by the ringing of the bells at the Cathedral Basilica and Memorial Presbyterian Church - yep, both paid for by Henry Flagler.

Pacifying PUDs

City commissioners Monday will consider a Planned Unit Development amendment, a new Planned Unit Development, and revisions to the Planned Unit Development code that's been in a love/hate relationship with the community.

The regular session begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.

Planned Unit Development, or PUD, zoning dismisses all zoning regulations to allow creative property uses, but all elements of that creative design are subject to review by city boards and commission.

The downside is it requires government negotiating skills equal to the developer's skills to create a project benefitting both. But often, developers play off one citizen board against another to lose concerns in the shuffle.

"Assistant City Attorney Isabelle Lopez Monday will present PUD ordinance revisions (incorporating) consensus findings from previous Commission meetings and workshops," City Attorney Ron Brown says.

One element will be early notification to the Neighborhood Council and through it to the city's neighborhoods, a provision recently approved by the commission.

The two PUDs are on Monday's agenda for first reading - before Lopez presents her recommendations. One is a modification of uses for property at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Kings Ferry Way. The other is a new application by the St. Augustine Alligator Farm which would allow expanded parking and park amenities across Old Quarry Road.

Fire-ravaged clinic

Solarstik aids

Sudan village

 

It takes a village to raise a child, and a high tech team to restore power to a medical mission's complex destroyed by fire in a remote Sudanese village.

St. Augustine's Solarstik is donating to the Alaska Sudan Medical Project, and HDL Global Forwarding is contributing transportation at cost, a critical solar power system to the village of Old Fangak in northeast Africa, plagued by preventable diseases and malnutrition.

Solarstik is in the STAR-TIDES network (Sharing To Accelerate Research-Transformative Innovation for Development and Emergency Support), a research effort promoting sustainable support to stressed populations.

Cost of Solarstik's donation: $120,000.

Value: Priceless.

Image: Fire-ravaged clinic
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City seeks study of fatal intersection

The Alligator Farm plan to expand parking and park features across Old Quarry Road could be a part, but not the major Anastasia Blvd/Red Cox Road intersection concern in a city resolution calling for Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) help at the intersection of Anastasia Boulevard and Red Cox Road.

"The frequency of incidents, including a recent two-fatality, one vehicle crash and two crashes which directly hit the fire station facility" are cited in asking for FDOT help "in funding and conducting an appropriate traffic safety study at this location and in funding and initiating such additional safety measures deemed appropriate by that study."

As Upchurch Park was being planned, consideration was given to aligning the roads and signalizing the intersection.
 

Adding, amending awards

Commissioners Monday will discuss expanding a limitation on the city's La Florida Award and adding new awards in historic preservation, archaeology and humanitarian programs.

Dr. Hayling

Vice-Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline and Commissioner Bill Leary have both asked for awards discussion.

Sikes-Kline at the same meeting will be asking consideration of Dr. Robert B. Hayling for the Order of La Florida. Hayling received the de Aviles Award in 2011.

The de Avil�s Award is limited to one recipient a year, while the Order of La Florida allows only eight living recipients at any one time.  

City introduces coral growing idea

Residents at coral growing meeting
Residents hear about coral-growing idea.

What to do with waterfront property on a former landfill now capped with clean soil?

"There are not a lot of businesses out there looking for this type of property," City Manager John Regan told residents Wednesday night at a Galimore Center public session to introduce Applied Coral Technologies (ACT).

Negotiations are in progress to see if ACT, a start-up, is a fit to lease four acres of the 11-acre Riberia Pointe at the south end of Riberia Street for a coral growing operation. A Helmet Dive Adventure, underwater tour of the coral reef and exotic fish, is also proposed.

Worked into the planning is centralization of corral space for the city's horse carriage businesses. ACT would occupy an area currently leased by a carriage business. The relocation would be to the east side of the baseball/softball fields and adjacent to the Lincolnville Farmers Market.   

Regan assured skeptics in the audience that a follow-up meeting will have details on the proposals. 

News and Notes

Shaking off the last of history

Big head once displayed in Visitor Center    Tucked into the 15-item Consent Agenda which is usually passed without discussion is the divestiture of city government's last vestiges of active historic interpretation.

   The city's collection of Colonial Spanish wardrobe and Big Heads, "the last remaining assets of the former Heritage Tourism Department," would be loaned to City Gate Productions (Michelle Reyna and Sylvia McGinnis) for use, storage and maintenance with commission approval.

   Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield notes in a memo to commissioners that an agreement must be reached between City Gate and the Casa Monica Hotel, which has rights to the costumes for the Noche de Gala it's taken over from the city.
Historical Society building check

   St. Augustine Historical Society Executive Director Susan Parker will be joined by architects Herschel Shepard and Kenneth Smith and University of Florida Historic St. Augustine Board Chair Allen Lastinger Monday to describe the society's historic buildings at its annual meeting at 7 pm in Flagler College's Flagler Room.

   Under the society's stewardship are the Oldest House and Llambias, Segui Kirby Smith and Tovar houses. The event is free.
Our historic Water Treatment Plant

   A plaque recognizing St. Augustine's Water Treatment Plant as the second oldest in Florida (Tarpon Springs 1919, ours 1927) will be unveiled in a free public ceremony Monday, January 14, at 11 am at 254 West King Street. The American Water Works Association is making the presentation.
 
History's Highlight

St. Augustine in the Civil War

The public spaces 

 

2 years, 7 months, 28 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

 

   St. Augustine played no significant role in the Civil War, but traces of its impact can be found throughout the city. This is the first of three highlights on the public spaces, homes, and final resting places of the Civil War period. These excerpts are from Florida Civil War Heritage Trail, a Florida Heritage Publication of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Flags of the Civil War

 

   January 10, 1861, Florida seceded from the U.S. to become one of the six original Southern states to form the Confederate States of America; eventually, 11 states would leave the Union.

   On the eve of Florida's withdrawal from the Union, under orders from Governor Madison S. Perry, state militia seized the fort without violence. During the first year of the Civil War, several Confederate blockade runners operated out of the port of St. Augustine.

   Confederate forces occupied St. Augustine until March 1862 when they withdrew from the city to prevent civilian casualties as Union warships approached. For the duration of the war, St. Augustine was used mainly as a rest center for Union troops.

   St. Augustine also became a haven for Unionist refugees and escaped slaves. Nearly 150 local African Americans were recruited for service in the 21st, 33rd, and 34th U.S. Colored Infantry regiments.

St. Augustine Lighthouse

   In January 1861, Confederate authorities ordered the St. Augustine Lighthouse to be darkened. Paul Arnau, the St. Augustine Collector of Customs and Superintendent of Lighthouses, oversaw its darkening and the later removal of its lighting apparatus. Elected mayor of St. Augustine in November 1861, Arnau resigned in March 1862 rather than surrender the city to the Union navy.

Government House 48 King Street

   On March 11, 1862, a small Union landing party proceeded to Government House, the seat of local government, to inform the St. Augustine City Council of the terms of surrender for the city. After the Federal occupation, the building was used as a military barracks, a hospital and a theater for Union troops.

Fort Marion, (Castillo De San Marcos)

   Confederate forces occupied Fort Marion until March 1862, when they evacuated the city. No Confederate attempt was made to retake the fort.

Plaza De La Constituci�n

   The Plaza includes the Confederate Monument, originally erected in 1872 on private property on St. George Street by the St. Augustine Ladies Memorial Association, then rebuilt in the Plaza in 1879 reusing material from the original monument. The names of 46 Confederate war dead from St. Augustine are listed on the monument.

   Mounted in the Plaza are two Civil War 32-pounder rifled cannons and two Civil War 8-inch Columbiad cannons from Fort Marion. The cannons were presented to the city by the U.S. War Department in 1900. In the adjacent Anderson Circle, there is a Civil War seacoast mortar from Fort Marion given to the city by the War Department about the same time.

 

   St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - dramatic accounts of famous people and events in St. Augustine's history - in booklets designed for quick reads before bed. Information here

  
   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 [email protected]