City to test once a week trash collection
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Published by former Mayor George Gardner February 8 2014
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City to test once a week
trash/recycling collection
A proposal for once a week trash/recyclables pickup in a pilot study area goes before the St. Augustine City Commission Monday in an effort to hold down residential rates in the face of county plans to increase its landfill tipping fees.
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Recycle bins on Riberia Street
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The meeting begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
"The Nelmar Terrace Neighborhood Association has agreed to be the guinea pig for one day a week trash and recyclable pickup," Public Works Director Martha Graham says. "It's about 100 homes, which will get new 96-gallon gray carts for trash and use their current 65-gallon brown carts for recyclables."
Graham says the study will run for six months, beginning March 4 and continuing to September.
City residents have resisted going to one day a week pickup, but Graham noted there have been no solid waste rate increases in five years, and now the county wants both the city and St. Augustine Beach to go from $44.18 a ton tipping fees to the $57 a ton charged to private users.
City recycling efforts have helped reduce landfill loads, Graham says, through a new cardboard recycling program for businesses, recycle bins in the historic district, and three drop-off locations, on Red Cox Road behind RB Hunt School, the north end of San Marco Avenue, and the south end of Riberia Street at the Solid Waste Department.
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Night of Terror February 7-8
On the night of Feb. 7 and into the early morning of Feb. 8, 1964, several shots were fired into the house of Dr. Robert Hayling, a local NAACP leader, killing his dog and just missing his pregnant wife. Earlier a north city home was firebombed.
These events would lead Dr. Hayling to seek the help of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and move the St. Augustine Civil Rights movement into high gear.
The 50th anniversary of
The Night of Terror is being commemorated by Flagler College's Civil Rights Library of St. Augustine, an Internet-based multimedia archive documenting the St. Augustine Civil Rights Movement. Find several pages devoted to the events of Feb. 7-8, 1964 on the
website.
Flight to Freedom
Today, along the trail, meet Native Americans, a trapper turned bounty hunter, a Catholic priest and Captain Francisco Menendez, head of the African Militia and founding leader of Fort Mose in the Flight to Freedom reenactment at Fort Mose.
Food, music, weapons, and cooking demonstrations will be on-going at this free event, 10 am to 3 pm.
Photo: Only front steps remain of the Roberson home at 167 Gault Street in north city, firebombed after their children enrolled to integrate Fullerwood Elementary School.
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Dedication a test
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 Neither rain nor chill nor choppy bay kept officialdom from its appointed ceremonies Friday afternoon, dedicating a stretch of seawall south of the Bridge of Lions, reconstructed to deal with such weather.
Federal, state and local officials cancelled a walk along the length of St. Augustine's historic seawall, choosing to gather under a tent for ceremonies at the Municipal Marina.
The original 170-year-old coquina seawall is still there (at left in photo), now protected by a new barrier twelve feet into the bay, the span filled with a promenade.
The two year $6.325 million project was funded with 25% from the city and 75% from the Florida and Federal Emergency Management Agencies, Flood Mitigation Assistance Program and a Congressional appropriation.
The dedication marked the end of a 15-year effort by the city following Hurricane Floyd in 1999. It was Tropical Storm Faye in 2008 that qualified the city for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant program.
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Hot buttons in review
War Memorial, 7-Eleven go to HARB
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A move of the War Memorial within the Plaza de la Constitución, expected to be challenged by veterans organizations hoping to locate it in the west garden of Government House, and appeal of a permit application denal for a 7-Eleven at San Marco Avenue and May Street, face review before the February 20 meeting of the city's Historic Architectural Review Board.
The meeting begins at 2 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
The City Commission approved the War Memorial move some 35 feet into the plaza from the corner of Cathedral Place and Charlotte Street where it's hidden by electric panels.
Military Officer's Association President Rik Erkelens says veterans organizations are mobilizing to make the move instead to the state-owned west garden property managed by the University of Florida.
The city is seeking HARB Certificates of Relocation and Appropriateness for the move within the plaza as well as installation of a handrail on the east side of the Public Market.
Attorney James Whitehouse, a former St. Augustine assistant city attorney, will argue the case for 7-Eleven after Planning and Building Director Mark Knight denied a building permit based primarily on the San Marco driveway width under the city's entry corridor guidelines code.
The entry corridor guidelines, designed to maintain low intensity uses, include narrower 24-foot wide driveways, while the Florida Department of Transportation allows greater width for today's traffic.
HARB reviews entry corridor disputes.
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Scamming our veterans
Former Veterans Council Chair Tom Waskovich, a retired Army Major, was shopping at the Anastasia Island Winn Dixie when he saw a group collecting money in front of the store with a sign, "Support our Veterans, United we Stand."
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Waskovich
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"I asked if they were veterans and where were they from, and did they check with our Veterans Council," says Waskovich. "They responded that they were not veterans, they were from Tampa, and they had not checked with anyone locally except the store manager. As far as they knew no money was going to our county veterans.
 "I strongly expressed my displeasure and decided to remain and advise any store customers not to give them any money. After about 10 minutes they packed up and left the area.
"The store manager said he thought they were working for local veterans and that he would not let them return. He said it would be fine if only groups authorized by the Veterans Council would be allowed to solicit there."
Waskovich has urged the Veterans Council to send letters to all the food stores in the county that only groups that have an authorized letter from the Veterans Council be allowed to solicit money at their stores.
Veterans Council Chair Bill Dudley added, "In looking at the organization's 990 tax filing for last year I noted that the President of VSO (Veterans Service Organization) had a salary of $286,711. All of our Veterans Council members are non-compensated volunteers who give freely of their time to support veterans and their needs.
"It is also important to know that Florida law makes it a third degree felony to solicit for charitable contributions while misrepresenting as veterans or for veterans' purposes."
Image of Waskowich from Vietnam - Service, Sacrifice, and Courage, on YouTube
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Alternative to visioning process?
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 George Ferguson, Mayor of Bristol, England, is an international champion of placemaking, sustainability, and cities for people.
As an architect, he was called a "one-man regeneration machine" for his revitalization projects. As Mayor he has launched "George's Ideas Lab," a website for citizens to submit their ideas for improving the city.
He promises to rebuild a large swath of the city center as human-scale mixed-use, veto big-box retail, create a new Barcelona-style boulevard, and "out-Copenhagen Copenhagen."
In seven weeks the lab received over 300 ideas and is now asking for help to rate and discuss them.
From Suzanne H. Crowhurst Lennard, Ph.D. (Arch.), Director, International Making Cities Livable Conference
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1 year, 7 months, 1 day to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
The Journey: 450 Years of the African American Experience exhibit at the Visitor Center will direct visitors to many historic resources in that experience. Here are some:
Fort Mose, Two miles north of St. Augustine off U.S. 1. Authorized by Spanish Governor Manuel Montiano in 1738 as a refuge for escaping slaves from English plantations and as a northern defense outpost for St. Augustine.
Butler Beach - Highway AlA south of the Mary Street ramp. In 1927, Lincolnville businessman Frank B. Butler bought land between the Atlantic Ocean and Matanzas River which he developed into Butler Beach. For many years this was the only beach that African Americans were allowed to use between Jacksonville and Daytona Beach.
 Lincolnville Historic District, bounded by DeSoto Place, Cedar, Riberia, Cerro, and Washington Streets. In 1866 former black slaves began settling a three-block area in St. Augustine at first known as Africa but later renamed Lincolnville. By 1885, Lincolnville was a growing black business and residential community. Lincolnville has the greatest concentration of Victorian architecture in the city.
St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church and School, 78 Martin Luther King Avenue. This block of property in Lincolnville, part of the "Yallaha" orange grove plantation before the Civil War, was conveyed to the Catholic Church by the Dumas family in 1890. St. Cecilia School, later St. Benedict, was built in 1898 for black children and is the oldest surviving brick schoolhouse in St. Augustine (now under renovation).
Excelsior High School, 102 Martin Luther King Avenue. Built in 1924 as a public high school for St. Augustine's African Americans, for 50 years this building also served as a state social service center. Currently home to the Excelsior Museum and Cultural Center of Lincolnville, a reading resource center and small library.
St. Mary's Missionary Baptist Church, 69 Washington Street. Here, on June 9, 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., told 500 supporters that he would participate in a sit-in at a motel restaurant the next day, anticipating correctly that he would be jailed. This Italian Gothic style church was constructed in 1920.
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 85 Martin Luther King Avenue. This 1910 Gothic Revival style church served as an assembly point for blacks demonstrating against segregated beaches, lunch counters and other facilities in 1964. The kitchen fed hundreds of volunteers who came from other states. Baseball great Jackie Robinson addressed a crowd of 600 here, urging them on to a determined, peaceful struggle.
Willie Galimore Community Center, 399 South Riberia Street. This recreational facility is named in honor of St. Augustine native Willie Galimore. The former Florida A&M three-time All American played seven years with the Chicago Bears in the National Football League.
Image: St. Benedict the Moor Church and property, Wikimedia Commons
The Africans is among Dramatic accounts of famous people and events in St. Augustine in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - Details here.
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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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