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Published by former Mayor George Gardner August 9 2014
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Historic routes would avoid St. George Street
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Ste. Claire
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"In an effort to support and encourage the numerous and varied re-enactor groups in their efforts to celebrate the City of St. Augustine's 450th commemoration," 450 Director Dana Ste. Claire will propose to commissioners Monday processional routes around St. George Street, called "the frontispiece of the story and life of this oldest city in the United States" in ordinances banning performances and parades.
He'll propose routes along Avenida Menendez and Spanish Street for numerous events involving the Castillo north of St. George and Government House and Lightner Museum to the south.
Reenactor Chad Light made an impassioned plea to commissioners two weeks ago to allow monthly Changing of the Guard processions along St. George Street during the 2015 anniversary year.
Ste. Claire's plan leaves in place a maximum of three St. George Street permits annually for nonprofit, insured organizations.
The commission meeting begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, with live computer streaming on CoSATV1.
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Denoel Pastry
Shop closing
An authentic piece of St. Augustine history ends August 31 with the closing of the Denoel French Pastry Shop on Charlotte Street.
Guy and Christine Denoel will retire after 48 years of serving a menu of traditional French recipes, featuring French pastries.
The City Commission Monday will present the Denoels with a certificate of appreciation for their years of service to residents and visitors in St. Augustine.
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Discoloration along base plate
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The St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument, dedicated three years ago, needs repair that could cost up to $2,240.
Sculptor Brian R. Owens, attending civil rights 50th anniversary ceremonies here in July, noted a pink discoloration along the sculpture's bronze base "that will probably spread if not dealt with properly," he says.
Owens contacted Bronzart Foundry in Sarasota, the foundry that cast the monument, with high resolution pictures.
"Their price to re-do the patina on site, based on the damage at this point in time, is $2,240. This would involve 2 men working for about 8 hours, applying a new patina to the affected areas," he says.
Original estimates for restoration of the Father Camps statue in the Cathedral west courtyard were in the $7,000 range.
"This is a consequence of lack of regular maintenance," said Owens, who supplied the city with detailed maintenance procedure when the monument was installed. "It should be washed and waxed by a person with experience maintaining outdoor sculpture every 6 months and monitored for any signs of trouble."
City General Services Director Jim Piggott says, "We are looking into getting the monument repaired."
The city has some $10,000 in funds for city monument maintenance, contributions to the War Memorial move made by Nena Vreeland and Florida Power & Light before contractor John Valdes assembled a gratis team to move the memorial.
The patina process
Owens, who followed the process of casting and finishing the sculpture, describes that process:
The lovely brown patina of your monument was man-made, a consequence of carefully applied chemicals and pigments, covered by a protective layer of acrylic lacquer and multiple layers of wax.
The brown color is not the natural color of unprotected bronze. Without maintenance, the protective layers will wear down, exposing the bronze (and the patina on it), allowing it to react with the air and airborne chemicals. Properly maintained, the Monument should withstand the elements for about 20 years before needing a restoration.
Washing and waxing may retard the spread of the pink areas but will probably not arrest it, as the reaction will continue under the new wax without the use of heat. The original "hot" patina, applied at the foundry, involved heating the entire monument with torches. A hot patina is not an option now, because the monument is permanently attached to the base and heat would almost certainly be destructive to the base.
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Parking revenue is
plus side of congestion
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When commissioners began discussing traffic congestion relief like satellite parking and shuttles, City Manager John Regan quickly suggested, "We don't want to disturb our parking system."
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Visitor Center parking traffic
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Understandable. It's the city's second highest revenue generator. In the current fiscal year so far (October 2013-July 2014) parking related revenue totaled
$3,717,792.05, about $300,000 over the same period last fiscal year.
Major contributors are the Visitor Center parking facility, $2,014,537.11, and parking meter/terminal system, $1,285,710.07.
Metered parking fines are at $142,094.91 for the first ten months of this fiscal year, down about $15,000 from the comparable previous year.
The balance of income is through ParkNow card sales ($159,171.38), lot permits ($111,108.58), residential parking permits ($3,270), and impound (boot) fees ($1,900).
Highest income periods for the parking facility have been December, $310,593.17, and March, $267,018.39, while meter parking was highest in April, $156,209.43, January, $134,373.97, and December, $129,400.67.
For the complete parking revenue breakdown, click here.
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Candidates produce forum questions
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Boles empties tote, Shaver watches
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A singular spark at Thursday night's Young Professionals (YPO) city candidate forum at River House came from current Mayor Joe Boles.
Asked what he feels he has accomplished in office, he dramatically lifted a tote to the table, pulled out a pile of city reports and graphs, and proceeded to claim everything from the Galimore Center and Riberia Street paving to the reverse osmosis system at the water treatment plant.
Not surprising that Boles was prepared. The YPO asked candidates 24 hours ahead of the forum to prepare five questions they'd like to be asked and five they'd like asked to other specific candidates.
And what appeared to be on candidates' minds were the proposed 7 Eleven at San Marco Avenue and May Street, allowing historic reenactments on St. George Street, a dollar fee on visitors, and traffic. Fielding them were Commission candidates John Valdes, Ron Berben, Todd Neville and Grant Misterly and mayoral candidates Ken Bryan, Nancy Shaver and Joe Boles.
Among comments, Misterly, Neville and Bryan all endorsed the idea of pressuring the Florida Department of Transportation to solve the 7 Eleven issue, Valdes supported more reenactments on St. George Street to "personify our history," but Neville countered, "I don't hear a groundswell" for changing limits on the street, and most candidates suggested better signage and satellite parking to ease downtown traffic.
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Sometimes tree removal is okay
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Live oaks on Spanish Street
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The Planning and Zoning Board Tuesday wreaked havoc on tree removal applications - until the city presented its plan to remove four live oaks along Spanish Street behind the Columbia parking lot as part of its streetscape improvement plan.
The board unanimously approved replacing the oaks with two live oaks at either end of the parking lot with five sabal palms between.
City Project Director Reuben Franklin and Marquis Halback Arborist Fremont Latimer noted the oaks were planted along a narrow strip squeezed between underground utilities and car parking.
Earlier in its four-hour session, the board denied a request to remove a live oak for new home construction at 51 Anderson Street, PZB Member John Valdes noting, "This got a lot further than it should have."
The builder, told he'd need a tree removal permit, told city staff, "approve what you can and we'll come back" for a tree removal permit.
The result was framing a garage right behind the tree. Jerry Dixon moved to deny the request "and put it on notice if the tree dies in the next three years it becomes a code enforcement issue." That board can levy fines up to $5,000.
A second application, to remove a pecan tree to move a house, was approved after assurances of tree replacements.
The board later approved a recommendation to the City Commission to double fines for "after the fact" tree removal requests, which could range up to $400 for a 20 inch tree, and to consider fining tree removal firms as well as homeowners.
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VA clinic agreement 'etched in Jell-O'
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By Michael Isam, Commander of DAV Chapter 6
According to Assistant County Administrator Jerry Cameron, the VA is asking St. Johns County to "hold in reserve" property off Inman Road as they explore other options.
This is the property on which the VA previously agreed, at least in principal, to place a temporary home for the Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC) to insure uninterrupted service for the health needs of the county's veterans.
"This offer," said Cameron, "will essentially build the CBOC to the VA specifications and, as a carrot, offer to extend the current lease at the same level, thereby eliminating the need for the VA procurement division to be involved at all."
Last Tuesday county commissioners approved an offer to VA to build a $5 million clinic at the new health services complex, and VA spokespeople said any options would have to go through an open procurement process.
St. Johns County is home to more than 20,000 veterans and a little more than 5,000 are patients at the current CBOC.
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History's highlight
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Reading Military Grave Markers
396 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
By Elizabeth Duran Gessner, president of the Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association.
When you walk around a cemetery, you can look at the grave markers to get a sort of capsule biography of the people buried under them: the name, dates, usually a religious symbol and sometimes a few words from a grieving family member. Sometimes you can imagine a little bit about them from these words.
 Military markers are much less personal and just tell you the equivalent of name, rank and serial number. Well, maybe not the serial number, but certainly more information about the deceased's military service than anything else. Take a look at this marker, one of our Confederate markers commemorating a man who fought in the Confederate army. This is one of several markers placed by Colonel John Masters, a member of the Sons of the Confederacy, in 2000 to mark the burial place of some of St Augustine's Confederate soldiers. It is a Veterans Administration marker and reflects the current format for such markers. We see that it belongs to Second Lieutenant Charles D. Segui (the latter is a Minorcan name). Above his name and rank is what is referred to as the Southern Cross of Honor, originally created by the Congress of the Confederate States in 1862 and intended to be the equivalent of the US Medal of Honor. It is now approved by the Veterans Administration for placement in the "symbol of belief" area of the marker, which is usually for religious symbols, and can be placed on the marker of anyone who served honorably in the Confederate Army. Underneath, we see the abbreviations indicating that he was in Company B, 3rd Florida Infantry, Confederate States of America. And last of all, his dates. Charles Segui was only 31 when he died, but it was several years after the Civil War ended, so we know that he was not a battlefield casualty.
And other than the above details, we learn nothing more about him: no wife, no children are listed as grieving for him; no parents as having predeceased him; no hopes of Heaven or fond remembrance. But what we see is really the sum of what we know about anyone buried under a military marker.
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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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