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Published by former Mayor George Gardner June 26 2013
The Report is an independent publication serving our community.
Contributions are greatly appreciated.
or mail to
George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084
Click to order St. Augustine Bedtime Stories -
two sets of twelve, $15 each set
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'The' signature 450 project
'They'll talk about underlighting for years to come'
City Commissioner Don Crichlow made a strong case Monday for underlighting the Bridge of Lions, and has a resident lighting expert experienced with Super Bowls and Olympics to back him up.
"This could be the signature project for the city for the 450th," said Crichlow in a request for $7,500 for a pilot lighting of three or four spans - possibly before the July 4th holiday fireworks.
"This is something they'll talk about 25, 50 years from now," he suggested. "'Where'd they come from? Oh, that was a project from the city's 450th.'"
Working with Crichlow, and contributing the lighting itself, is Bill Brennan of JustLighting, an international lighting consultant firm.
Crichlow noted the city invested "$40,000 to $50,000 some years back toward underlighting design and wiring conduit. We hope this display will encourage interest and financial support to do the complete bridge underlighting."
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The room
is secure
City police officers performed security checks outside the City Commission room door Monday as Chief Loran Lueders looked on from inside.
It was the first of a series of security measures ordered by commissioners, later to include a new table with bulletproof front screening and reversal of a door behind the commission table.
Of the new measure, frequent city critic B.J. Kalaidi suggested, "Politicians and staff - everyone in this room, should go through the security wanding. The public should be protected from the politicians as well as the politicians from us."
Mayor Joe Boles did in fact go through a wanding as he reentered the room after a recess.
Photo: Historic City News
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Grand reception hall
in former bank lobby?
"I think it would behoove the city to have a great reception hall as beautiful as that place," restaurateur John Arbizzani urged city commissioners Monday as they debated allowing alcohol sales within 100 feet of churches - action prompted by owners for use of the former Exchange Bank lobby as a marketplace or restaurant.
Arbizzani noted he's been in negotiation with the bank owners for use as a wedding reception venue, but added it would be a great space for public receptions and exhibits like the current 450 Mosaic as well.
In more time than it takes for dinner and a drink, commissioners debated outside drinking restrictions, special use permitting, possible Planned Unit Development zoning, more frequent audits, 10 pm closing, and use for receptions, Commissioner Don Crichlow finally calling for a vote on the ordinance as presented.
It will allow alcohol service only in restaurants with more than 50 percent sales in food. Other possibilities for use will go under consideration for later modifications.
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'Not driving them out ...
trying to improve quality'
Following passage of an ordinance to regulate vendors and sending to later public hearing a measure extending a performer ban the length of Hypolita Street to the bayfront, Commissioner Don Crichlow made an effort to assure both categories the ordinances are necessary.
"Every time we address these matters, someone comes along to screw it up," he said. "We have to make ordinances to clean it up." He noted regulations for prized locations along the Visitor Center promenade include specific sites, tent sizes and the like.
Commissioner Leanna Freeman admitted of the latest measures, "I don't know if this is the right move, but we've got to try it."
El Galeón home port embraced
City commissioners Monday were enthusiastic about City Manager John Regan's proposal to negotiate an agreement with owner Nao Victoria to make St. Augustine El Galeón's North American home port.
But an El Galeón spokesperson says agreement with the city is not yet a done deal. Read The Examiner's Rhonda Parker's report.
Regan noted among the benefits, revenue sharing with a strong tourism draw, more attention to the Municipal Marina, and "an economic engine for our marine industry" which can attend to the galleon's maintenance needs.
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 History in the making
Buffalo Soldiers, Oglethorpe cannons to recall past
An historic weekend is on tap as Buffalo Soldiers FL mounted cavalry unit visits the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park Saturday and three cannons are dedicated at Davis Shores' Oglethorpe Battery Park Sunday. Both events are hosted and funded through the St. Augustine 450 Military Committee.
Buffalo Soldiers FL "is a historical, reenactment, public service organization," according to organizers of the unit formed in 1992. They'll be at the park throughout Saturday.
"The goal of the group is to tell the 'true' story of the Black Men who first served in the Regular U.S. Army starting in 1866. They fought at San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders, were involved in the Mexican Border Wars in the early 1900s and fought overseas during WWI. The Regiment still exists in the US Army."
National Guard Historian Greg Moore believes there is at least one and up to nine Buffalo Soldiers
from the Spanish American War who died of disease in their camp and were reinterred at the post cemetery here when the camp was closed.
Oglethorpe Ceremony Sunday
The clock rolls back 100 years from that Civil War era to 1740 as three replica cannons are dedicated at Oglethorpe Battery Park in Davis Shores beginning at 10:30 am Sunday.
Some $13,000 was raised to cast and ship the cannons from Hern Iron Works in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
The 450 Military Committee, city, North Davis Shores Neighborhood Association and St. Augustine British Club have teamed up for the ceremony, recognizing Georgia General James Oglethorpe's unsuccessful bombardment of the Castillo from that site in June and July, 1740.
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Riberia completion near, seawall delayed
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Graham
1st Coast News photo
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Riberia Street's repaving should be completed by July 3, with a formal ribbon cutting August 9 at 9 am - "maybe even with a parade" after a long wait for its completion, Public Works Director Martha Graham told commissioners Monday.
She also explained the delay in completing the seawall project south of the Bridge of Lions, originally planned for completion in April and now projected for October. She noted supporting structure under the promenade being created need redesign, and improved aesthetics had to go through various agency approvals.
These were part of an update on numerous public works projects under way. She said the $6.6 million in water line improvements has included rust reduction equipment in the water treatment plant, completion of line replacement in Lincolnville and Lighthouse Park with South Davis Shores, Fullerwood and Magnolia neighborhoods next on tap.
In recycling, Graham said there's been a 10 percent increase in residential and 12 percent in commercial recycling since introducing a more aggressive program in 2009, resulting in $98,000 in disposal fee savings and service fees paid by businesses. She also anticipates her citizen Stormwater Committee will have recommendations for the commission in August - likely to include more equitable rates for non-residents who are now paying more than residents for water and sewer service.
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Alley ooped
A plan to vacate one Lighthouse area alley was dropped at a previous City commission meeting, and a second alley vacating plan was dropped Monday as commissioners opted for a license agreement with a property owner needing only a section for a retention area.
Both Mayor Joe Boles and Commissioner Don Crichlow, the latter saying, "I see no reason not to vacate the whole alley," voted against denial of the vacating ordinance, while a majority favored keeping the alley open for public use.
Fee waivers for 'traditional events'
The Easter and Christmas parades are "traditional events we ought to subsidize," Mayor Joe Boles said Monday as Commissioner Don Crichlow urged waiving increased fees for the Easter Parade - a plea made earlier in the City Commission meeting by Easter Week Festival committee President Phil Genovar.
Commissioners appeared to favor the waiver, but delayed action until the July 8 meeting for time to consider what events might escape increased fees put into effect this month. Parade fees, $25 in previous years, are now as much as $5,000 as police, parks and street services are added.
Lincolnville timeline under study
A proposal for a Lincolnville historic timeline display at the Galimore Center was pulled from Monday's City Commission agenda as a Lincolnville group continued work on details.
Lift Up Lincolnville President Sue Agresta noted, "The idea did not come from Lift Up Lincolnville, but actually came from Accord president and president emeritus Dalonja and Gwendolyn Duncan and Professor Casey Welch, Flagler College. A group of us came together to discuss their idea."
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History's highlight
Oglethorpe's siege of 1740
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2 years, 2 months, 14 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
In ceremonies Sunday at 10:30 am the St. Augustine 450 Military Committee will dedicate three cannons at Oglethorpe Park in Davis Shores, site of James Oglethorpe's artillery in June and July, 1740, as he tried unsuccessfully to bombard the Castillo and capture St. Augustine.
Spain had for nearly 200 years claimed the entire eastern seaboard, but its only strong garrison was St. Augustine. Carolina seemed too distant to try to defend. Georgia, however, was much closer to home, and the Spanish government would not yield this debatable land to intruders.
Sensing English intentions in the mid 1730s, Florida Governor Moral Sanchez strengthened his defenses to the north and laid plans to eventually attack the English in Georgia.
 Sanchez' successor in 1737, Manuel de Montiano, suspected the English might strike first, and focused on his St. Augustine defenses. Havana sent 400 fresh troops, new iron cannons, funds to build barracks and patrol boats, and 82 laborers including engineers, bricklayers and stonemasons. As war became real, the garrison had 613 fighting men, still no match for Oglethorpe's 1,600 men, seven warships and 40 dugouts for landing parties. But then, there was the invincible Castillo, too. Early this year of 1740, Oglethorpe's troops ranged along the St. Johns River north and west of St. Augustine, taking smaller outposts. In April, they marched from the St. Johns and seized Fort Mose, a northern defense outpost created two years earlier two miles north of St. Augustine. By early June the English force had encircled the city. Oglethorpe's heavy ships could not pass the sandbar into the bay, so his siege guns were landed and dragged across Anastasia Island and along the southern point of Vilano, to pummel the Castillo and city. Rather than shattering solid stone walls, the traditional European siege strategy, the cannon balls were simply absorbed into the massive but soft coquina walls, which were quickly replastered overnight by the Spanish. This whole situation was new - and distasteful - to the English: weeks of staying in one position, under a blazing semi-tropical sun, being attacked by mosquitoes and sand fleas, and now the psychological impact of a fresh new target every day. The English troops were approaching mutiny. Perhaps to break the strangling encirclement, discourage the attackers or encourage his defenders, Montiano made a bold decision. On June 25th, he committed nearly half his force to counterattack Fort Mose. The move was totally unexpected, and the Spaniards retook the northern outpost, killing 87 of the English and 35 Indians in the process.
Two weeks later, July 6, Spanish relief ships slipped up the inland waterway through its garrison at Matanzas Inlet. The newly replenished garrison was too much for the English forces, and by July 20 the last of them had pulled out.
Two decades later, by a Treaty of Paris, the British began a 21-year occupation of Florida, with St. Augustine and its Castillo, which was never to fall in battle.
Excerpt from Oglethorpe 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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