St. George Players cast and El Galeón crew gathered for photo op after a performance aboard the Spanish replica galleon last Thursday, while the Limelight Theatre was filled to capacity Sunday afternoon for ROWITA awards to eight women distinguished in the arts.

2014 & Beyond visioning committee members have their first homework.

   Facilitator Herb Marlowe of Analytica says the six-question survey will give him "a sense of the committee's preferred direction" for the visioning process.

   The questions:

1)     What are your expected outcomes, desired results or general hopes or the project?

2)     How would you judge project success?

3)     Do you have any specific expectations of the consulting team?  If so, what are they?

4)     Are there any specific process issues, potential pitfalls or errors that we as the consultants should be aware of or sensitive to?

5)     Are there any particular topics that should be considered at some point during the project?

6)     Is there a community you would like to emulate? Not emulate?

   An initial Steering Committee workshop to review visioning process options will be held Saturday 9 am-noon in the Alcazar Room at City Hall. 

A Downtown Improvement District Project open house will be held 5 - 6 pm Wednesday, April 9, in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.

J.B. Coxwell, contractor for $3.3 million project, will be available to discuss improvement plans for Hypolita, Treasury and Spanish streets. Construction start is expected the week after Easter.

The original $2.7 million project estimate grew through higher than expected bids and additional lighting. Property owners along the streets will pay $750,000 of the project cost.

Find project details here.

Marquis joins HARB

Jeremy Marquis of Marquis Halback landscape architects was named to the Historic Architectural Review Board by city commissioners at last week's meeting, joining incumbent Paul Weaver who was reappointed.  

Church and Spanish Street building

   The bell tower of Trinity United Methodist Church on Bridge Street and vacant former sports bar on Spanish Street go before the city Code Enforcement Board next Tuesday - the tower deemed unsafe and the historic Spanish Street building for being allowed to deteriorate.

   The code board meets Tuesday at 3 pm in the Alcazar Room at City hall.

   Past efforts to save the historic church have included a cluster of Methodist and other churches taking collections and holding fundraisers, and the city negotiated a lease of Trinity Methodist's parking lot five years ago which provided a revenue stream.

   The 72 Spanish Street property, between Treasury and Hypolita, is owned by Jerome & Pearl Gamsey who are represented by David Gamsey.

Timucuans and Europeans in 16th Century Florida will be discussed Monday at 7 pm in the Flagler Room, Flagler College, as part of The St. Augustine Historical Society Lecture Series.

Dr. Jonathan DeCoster, professor of American and Native American history at Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio, will give the free lecture.

Image: Colorized engraving based on French Artist Jacques le Moyne's drawings, showing monument placed by Jean Ribault.

The Intracoastal Waterway

1 year, 5 months, 7 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

   The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) was originally created in 1881 through a public/private partnership between the State of Florida and the Florida East Coast Canal and Transportation Company.

   The waterway channel was designed and constructed to connect all natural lagoons and rivers between Jacksonville and Miami using canal sections.

   Originally the ICW was 5 feet deep and 50 feet wide and was operated as a toll canal. The waterway was the primary transportation system of East Florida, transporting lumber and farm products up north and bringing back settlers and the mail.

   The Canal Company went bankrupt in the early 1900s when the railroad was built. The Florida Inland Navigation District (FIND) purchased the waterway in 1927 and, with the assistance of the US Army Corps of Engineers, reconstructed the waterway as a public navigation project.

   Today the waterway has been enlarged to 125 feet in width and between 10 and 12 feet deep.   The waterway continues to serve a transportation role on the east coast of Florida, moving approximately 1 million tons of cargo a year, 750,000 commercial passengers, and servicing over 500,000 recreational vessels that contribute to an estimated $14.7 billion per year marine economy.

   The Florida section of the ICW is part of the Federal Intracoastal Waterway system that extends 1,391 miles from Miami, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia.