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Published by former Mayor George Gardner July 20 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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Mumford math
City needs $50,000 for county 'expertise'
After a $129,485 county bed tax grant to cover a shortfall in September's Mumford concert expenses, city commissioners Monday will consider drawing $50,000 from reserve funds to pay the county for its "specialized expertise in the organization and production of notable concerts, festivals and other entertainment events which benefit local citizens and attract tourists to the local area."
Commissioners had voted previously to use reserve funds only for capital projects.
City Comptroller Mark Litzinger will make the case before commissioners in their regular session, beginning at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Ryan Murphy, manager of the county-operated St. Augustine Amphitheatre, presented the city's request for $129,485 to the County Tourist Development Council (TDC) last month.
Monday's balance sheet will show $361,438 in expected city revenue from a park and shuttle plan, reimbursable field preparations and the TDC grant, and $417,838 in expenses. The $56,400 deficit includes $50,000 in the proposed interlocal agreement with the county and $6,400 city staff overtime.
Not shown in revenue is $25,000 the concert promoters promise the city, $1 a ticket for 25,000 in ticket sales.
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Spanish Bakery
closing its doors
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After 37 years in business, the popular Spanish Bakery on St. George Street is closing its doors - its last day of business today.
The state-owned property is managed by the University of Florida. No word yet on its plans.
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A ballad for
St. Augustine
Back in the day, when visions of commemorating St. Augustine's 450th anniversary with historic programs and projects were live, New York-based songwriter B. Kay, related to residents Alan Kay and Hazel Henderson, set to work on a St. Augustine Ballad.
Former Mayor George Gardner encouraged, assisted in editing the lyrics, and owns a percentage of the copyright.
Kay has produced a website to provide some background and audio versions of the ballad - perhaps the first to incorporate highlights of 450 years of history.
Commemoration Director Dana Ste. Claire, hearing it several years ago, suggested its "great potential as a theme song for many of the programs we will be developing for the Commemoration."
Many musical pieces have been scored for St. Augustine over the years. The St. Augustine Ballad joins that chorus.
Image: Sacredfire.net
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Neighbors sharpen edge for 7-Eleven site battle
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Birchim stands before Pedro Menendez portrait addressing neighbors
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A barrage of questions from some two dozen neighbors prompted City Planner David Birchim to suggest, "You may not want to show all your cards" in the event of an appeal of 7-Eleven's plans for a store and gas pumps at already congested May Street and San Marco Avenue.
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7-Eleven builder rep Charley Carpenter and Architect T. Gray Frazier. In rear, City Planning Researcher Lynda Burgess.
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The session with 7-Eleven project designers, delayed 1½ hours Friday morning as the city's Development Review Committee waded through other project reviews, was held in the Alcazar Room at City Hall in anticipation of a turnout of concerned north city residents.
Birchim, sitting in for Planning and Building Director Mark Knight, told residents current plans are preliminary and more detailed plans will have to be submitted before Knight decides whether to issue a building permit.
Neighbors hope entry corridor guidelines, regulating designs and scale along San Marco, will defeat the plan, but either way, Birchim outlined procedures for appeal.
Either 7-Eleven or the neighborhood could make an appeal to the Historical Architectural Review Board, then City Commission, and finally Circuit Court.
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Public Works Director Martha Graham addresses room full of residents
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Creative responses to streetscape plan
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Creative ideas for improving historic district streets - and paying for it - brought up as many concerns as street corners during a public session Thursday evening in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Business owners along Cuna Street asked why their street is not included in current designs; residents asked if they'd be subjected to special assessments for improvements benefitting businesses, and one businessman called the concept of a Business Improvement District a "dangerous concept," suggesting it should be a responsibility of government, not property owners, to improve streetscapes.
Public Works Director Martha Graham said the city set aside $40,000 for "conceptual designs" along Spanish, Treasury and Hypolita Streets, while former mayor and business property owner Len Weeks said he'd gathered other businessmen to fund studies by Marquis Halback Design.
He said the concept is not limited to only three streets, but they were the focus as a "four-block prototype of what could be done."
Estimated cost of that prototype: $1.5 million, with the city paying $450,000 for utility work and a special assessment district covering the $1,050,000 balance.
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Braille plaque design approved
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 Plans for bronze Braille markers at four historic monuments in St. Augustine moved forward with design approval Thursday by the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB).
They're planned for the Father Camps Statue at the Cathedral, Foot Soldiers Monument in the Plaza, Ponce de Leon Statue at Anderson Circle, and Pedro Menendez Statue in front of city hall.
Sponsoring St. Augustine Art Association Administrator Elyse Brady says, "The grant project is called TOUCH St. Augustine - an acronym for Tactile Outreach for Understanding Creativity and History." Funding is a $10,000 grant from the Joann Crisp Ellert/Community Foundation Fund.
Partners in the project: Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind; Kansas Braille Transcription Institute; Cathedral Basilica; Flagler College; Sculptor Enzo Torcoletti, Community Foundation of Jacksonville; City of St. Augustine, and Florida Deaf-Blind Association.
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News & notes
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Budget process begins
City commissioners will help city staff decide on a tentative millage rate at a 4 pm budget workshop Monday before the regular commission meeting at 5. For the first time in recent memory, the numbers are too tight for a staff recommendation.
Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield says, "We are in the midst of analyzing expense requests of the departments and weighing them against available revenues. The tax base shows a very slight increase, less than we anticipated, but at least it has finally leveled out and not decreased.
"We will be discussing with the commission what they see as priorities for the coming year. Based on what we gather at that workshop we will be prepared to propose a tentative millage at the regular commission meeting."
The tentative millage rate must be submitted early to the property appraiser, who sends notice to taxpayers on what their rate might be under final budgets. Commissioners will meet again in workshop Thursday, August 22, at 9 am to firm up a budget for two public hearings in September.
Seeking compassion
The St. Augustine Initiative for Compassion will make a presentation before the commission Monday on their goal to have the Nation's Oldest City declared a Compassionate City for the 450th Commemoration in 2015. Visit their website.
International understanding by the dozen
Twelve students from St. Augustine's sister city Aviles, Spain, will be introduced to city commissioners Monday as they begin a two-week visit with local counterparts in the annual student exchange sponsored by the city's Sister Cities Association.
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Performer ban: brickbats and concepts
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Folio Weekly's current issue sends a brickbat "to the St. Augustine City Commission for voting to ban street performers from another area of the historic city. In a unanimous vote, the commission approved an ordinance banning street performers on Hypolita Street, from St. George Street to Avenida Menendez.
"The ordinance says the performers create a 'visual blight' damaging the economic interests of merchants who pay property taxes. Visitors to St. Augustine enjoy the street performers, who have been part of the fun of visiting the Ancient City for decades."
And Bob Fliegel, who authored comments in the previous Report on how street performers could be allowed with regulations, suggests readers might want to visit his 2001 letter to the editor in the St. Augustine Record "in its entirety."
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History's highlight
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2 years, 1 month, 20 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Charles Tingley with the St. Augustine Historical Society and Barry Myers, curator of the Lightner Museum, did some research for a Lightner exhibit of watercolors by Edwin Augustus Moore with comparable period photos of the fire of 1895.
The 1895 fire wasn't the worst to hit St. Augustine in more recent centuries, but it's probably the third worst fire. Top honors go to the 1887 fire that destroyed the St. Augustine Hotel and heavily damaged the Cathedral Basilica. The second worst was probably the 1914 fire that destroyed the county courthouse and the Florida House hotel. 
If the wind had not been blowing toward the bay, the 1895 fire would have ranked even higher.
According to The Tattler, a local social publication, "A most disastrous fire occurred in this city. The fire was discovered in Master's Blacksmith shop on North Charlotte Street about 1 o'clock and was not regarded as serious hence there was some delay in giving the alarm. Half an hour elapsed before the engines were at work.
"The fire meanwhile had spread rapidly in all directions on south and north Charlotte and west on Hypolita and Cuna and east to Bay Street where it spread with great rapidity. Both north and south there was little wind at the time and that blowing from the city or the disaster would have been appalling.
"As it is at least 30 acres were covered with burning debris, 44 homes are destroyed and at least 35 families homeless.
"Owing to the vast territory the fire covered it was at once seen that the fire department was inadequate. Help from Jacksonville or Palatka could not be obtained," according to The Tattler. Henry M. Flagler directed his building contractor to help, and lines of hose ran from the Ponce de Leon Hotel pump house to where it was most needed, according to the paper.
The biggest damage was on Bay Street, where several landmarks were destroyed. "Nothing could stop its fury on the north. The flames leapt and swept from houses like a fury until even the fence surrounding the Fort (Marion) greens was consumed for some distance," The Tattler continued.
"As night came on the scene of desolation was terrible. Looking from the fort over the smoldering ruins where but a few hours before there were pretty homes, only an occasional chimney stood or a tottering wall except for the old forge. The walls of it are standing unscathed."
News stories went on to tell how the soldiers from the St. Francis Barracks turned out to help, how the "valiant dog of Mrs. Caruthers persisted in returning to the fire and was destroyed," of people whose hair was singed, of how the green of the fort was covered with people and furniture they had saved from their burning homes.
Throughout the night the fire department "labored manfully often almost overcome."
It also told of a relief fund that had reached $950 by the time the paper came out two days after the fire. Flagler had given $100; the Bacchus Club, a gambling casino, $50, and the Cathedral architect James Renwick $50.
The fire made some major changes to the city's look. Among them was the loss of the Old Forge, which was also known as the King's Smithy. It had been constructed in the 1680s to serve the Castillo de San Marcos. The walls stood at the end of the fire, but the building was eventually torn down.
Photo: Watercolor and comparable photo in the Lightner exhibit of the fire of 1895
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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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