Streetcars for St. Augustine?
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Published by former Mayor George Gardner March 22 2014
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Streetcar named St. Augustine?
Historic district transit system under study
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Banner for streetcar proposal. View here.
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A study is under way to create a historic district streetcar system but, "We would need to know lots more before this is seriously considered," Vice Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline says.
Robert Mann of Metro Jacksonville "has spoken with John (Regan, city manager) and me about this concept a couple of times," says Sikes-Kline, "but it hasn't gone beyond talk."
Mann brought in Harvey Stone of Stone Consulting Friday for preliminary assessment. He's "one of the world's foremost authorities on the creation of heritage type streetcar systems from conception to startup," says Mann. He's currently working on a project in central Florida.
Proposed route would be from the parking garage to Flagler College, out King to Riberia and south to a proposed garage and aquarium. The system would involve laying track with overhead lines to power the streetcars.
Sikes-Kline is chair of the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, and has focused on improved traffic management here, but said she said she didn't prompt the study. "Bob (Mann) prompted it as a concerned citizen."
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Historic women
At the Castillo
Women's History Month is recognized tonight with a guided tour of the Castillo featuring women from St. Augustine's history describing their lives and times.
Tours begin at the Castillo's ticket booth at 6, 7 and 8 pm. Limit 30 each tour. Adults $8, children 5-15, $4, under 5 free.
Contact 904-829-6506 x 233 or the website.
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Live streaming
for city meetings
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Live streaming will be on line for Monday's City Commission meeting.
City Public Affairs Director Paul Williamson said Friday "the new service offers live and on-demand viewing of City Commission, Planning and Zoning and Historic Architectural Review boards, through www.cosatv.com.
"All meetings will be accompanied with an indexed agenda allowing the viewer to jump to specific topics of interest," he said. "The live streaming can be viewed on both PCs and Macs as well as a wide array of mobile devices including iPhones, iPads, and Android-based phones and tablets."
Meetings have been available through St. Johns County's Government TV (GTV) on Comcast channel 3, and that service will continue, but "adding live streaming and on-demand viewing, the public's access to public meetings is greatly enhanced," said Williamson.
The streaming service is provided by Swagit Productions, LLC, a broadband multimedia communication company specializing in streaming services to television stations, newspapers, magazines and local government agencies.
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Advisory panel for CRA
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The City Commission starts work early Monday with a Lincolnville Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) session at 4:30 before its regular meeting at 5. Both meetings are in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Nominated for the CRA Advisory Committee are residents Laura Stevenson Dumas, Theresa Segal, Brian Thompson, Clyde Taylor, and Tony Smith.
The advisory committee will make recommendations on funding of redevelopment activities to the City Commission, which has overall authority to implement the CRA plan.
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7-Eleven appeal goes to commission
An appeal of permit denial for a 7-Eleven store and 12 gas pumps at busy San Marco Avenue and May Street is first on Monday's City Commission agenda.
Attorney James Whitehouse will present his case for 7-Eleven after the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) upheld the permit denial based on a proposed San Marco driveway width greater than 24 feet allowed under Entry Corridor Guidelines.
Whitehouse has argued, "Without that 30-foot width, the project isn't feasible."
The appeal includes public comment, and neighbors and commuters through the congested north city intersection are expected to make their case against the project.
The session begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Other public hearings
Also on Monday's agenda, public hearings and final action on ordinances to ban gas stations on San Marco Avenue and limit gas station pumps to eight along the city's the entry corridors - San Marco, King Street and Anastasia Boulevard, to require removal of vacant business signs and structures, and an amendment to the General Employees' Pension Plan adjusting cost of living.
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Commissioner opposes flavored tobacco
 Commissioner Roxanne Horvath will ask commission support Monday to urge tobacco retailers to stop sale and marketing of flavored tobacco in the city.
A Centers for Disease Control report says "use of tobacco in flavors like Dreamsicle and chocolate mint may be a growing problem among teenagers.
"More than two out of every five middle- and high-school students who smoke report using flavored little cigars or flavored cigarettes," according to the report.
Photo: CNN
Let there be (more) light
Commissioners will be asked Monday to approve $88,000 for additional streetlights along Spanish and Treasury streets as part of the $2.7 million streetscape program along those streets and Hypolita. City staff was able to pare down a higher project bid in part by reducing lights, but former Mayor Len Weeks urged that some of those lights be restored.
The funds would be a loan from the Utility Reserves to the General Fund, Public Works Director Martha Graham says.
$15,000 to repair tennis courts
General Services Director Jim Piggott will ask commissioners Monday for $15,000 to repair the tennis courts owned by the city at Lighthouse Park.
The county's transfer of adjacent tennis courts to the Lighthouse brought attention to the city-owned courts, prompting an assessment of repair needs.
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History's highlight
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1 year, 5 months, 18 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
March 24, 1683, twelve years after the start of construction on the Castillo de San Marcos. French and English buccaneers from New Providence in the Bahamas joined forces to attack San Agustín. Historic records recount this typical pirate action.
Florida Governor Juan Márquez Cabrera received warning from Havana of the buccaneers' plan. To the watchtower at Matanzas he added two more - Ayamó n, 27 miles south of the presidio, and on the beach north of the town. The citizenry was gathered into the relative safety of the partially completed Castillo, and garrison and militia troops were stationed at likely landing places.
On March 24, a force of 230 buccaneers landed near Ponce de León Inlet, 70 miles south of San Agustín and, flying French colors, marched toward the presidio. They captured the Ayamón and Matanzas watchtowers, torturing the soldados they seized for information on the town's defenses.
Led by the French captain, Bréhal, and guided by the San Agustín renegade, Alonso de Avecilla, the buccaneers reached Escolte Island, today's Anastasia Island, eight miles south of the town. Here, on March 31, the freebooters were ambushed by 30 Spanish musketeers and routed.
Retreating to their ships, they sailed north and anchored off San Agustín itself on April 5. Seeing the town alerted and the Castillo at arms, the corsairs abandoned their San Agustín enterprise and instead raided the Spanish province of Guale, on the coast along northeast Florida and southeast Georgia.
They sacked the mission villages of San Juan del Puerto (on Ft. George Island, FL) and Santa María (on Amelia Island, GA). After beaching their vessels on the Isla de San Pedro (present-day Cumberland Island, GA), the buccaneers buried their dead and departed.
Three years later, 1686, the French buccaneer Michel "Chevalier" de Grammont appeared off Little Matanzas Inlet with plans to sack the presidio. With him was the French Huguenot, Nicolas Brigaut. The Spaniards thwarted the plan, Brigaut was garroted in the city's plaza, and Grammont was lost in a storm while fleeing up the coast.
Image: French pirate Michel "Chevalier" de Grammont
The Pirates is included in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - Dramatic accounts of famous people and events. 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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