Ordinances for consideration at Monday's City Commission meeting would extend the annual Nights of Lights and require businesses to pay fees for fire safety inspections.

The Nights of Lights ordinance proposes, "the ending date of January 31 should be able to extend through the Sunday following January 31 of any year in order to provide an additional weekend of benefits derived from the Nights of Lights event."

Fire Chief Mike Arnold says the fire inspection ordinance would "create a fire inspection fee for all commercial businesses within the city limits ... primarily to offset the expenses and fees incurred by our fire safety inspectors."  

Madam Mayor

Samuels

St. Augustine Beach City Commissioner Andrea Samuels has been elected mayor for 2014 by her commission colleagues - the first female to occupy the center seat.  Andrea and husband Bob have been instrumental in many Beach initiatives, prominently the St. Augustine Beach Civic Association.

Sidewalk dining

Puckett

"Sidewalk dining along San Marco Avenue would go a long way towards the beautification and improvement of one of the main entrance corridors to the city," writes Laura Puckett, owner of a strip of shops along the street. "Outdoor dining always lingers in our memories of any city where it's available, and it has certainly made an impact on Aviles Street."  

Sorry Frances

Referring to Wednesday's Report item on Frances Kirby Smith, reprinted from The Nation's Storyteller, Historic Tours of America, St. Augustine Historical Society Senior Research Librarian Charles A. Tingley corrects, "She was not married shortly before moving to Florida in 1820. Frances Kirby married Joseph Lee Smith 25 August 1804 in Litchfield, CT (and) As far as I know, she never returned to St. Augustine after the Civil War. Initially she lived with her sister Mrs. Benjamin Putnam in Lake City. In 1867 she was living with her daughter Frances Smith Webster in York, PA.  Later, she returned to Florida again living with her sister this time in Palatka where she died."

Ideal gifts of St. Augustine history for family, friends and business associates during the holidays.

Look for them at the St. Augustine Visitor Center, Castillo, Lighthouse, Fountain of Youth, Fort Menendez, and St. Augustine Textiles, or contact gardner@aug.com 904-669-1348. Details here.

1 year, 9 months, 2 days  to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

         

In December of 1571, Pedro Menéndez was sailing from Florida to Havana with two frigates when, as he tells it, "I was wrecked at Cape Canaveral because of a storm which came upon me, and the other boat was lost fifteen leagues further on in the Bahama Channel, in a river they call the Ais. 

   "I, by a miracle reached the fort of St. Augustine with seventeen persons I was taking with me. Three times the Indians gave the order to attack me, and the way I escaped them was by ingenuity and arousing fear in them, telling them that behind me many Spaniards were coming who would slay them if they found them."

From Rouse, Irving. Survey of Indian River Archaeology. Yale University Publications in Anthropology

  

In December of 1702, some 2,000 townspeople, soldiers and Indians huddle inside the protective walls of the massive Castillo de San Marcos in the midst of a 54-day siege by English forces from the Carolinas. On Christmas Eve two sails are sighted. They are English. Morale inside the fort sinks. 

   Governor Joseph de Zuniga y Zerda focuses on morale: A Christmas Eve party for all and bonuses for the troops. His accountants say the treasury can't afford it. The governor replies, "Charge it to next year's account!" five days later a Spanish relief fleet from Havana chases off the English and ends the siege.

From Siege, St. Augustine Bedtime Stories

 

In December of 1835, Army Major Francis Dade leads a reinforcement column from Fort Brooke, near Tampa, to Fort King at Ocala 100 miles distant. Dade is a last minute replacement for an officer whose wife is ill. Where the trail breaks into a clearing near an area called Wahoo Swamp, a Seminole force of 180 opens fire from heavy foliage. 

Half the column of 110 is dropped with the first deadly spray of shot, with them Major Dade. The remainder, their sky blue uniforms making easy targets, dive for the cover of trees. A six-pounder is quickly readied, and its roar so shocks the Indians they retreat for the better part of an hour.  The Indians soon reorganize and continue the attack, shredding men and logs in deadly gunfire. When the cannon falls silent for lack of ammunition, the Indians close in with tomahawks and knives.

From Dade's Massacre, St. Augustine Bedtime Stories