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Published by former Mayor George Gardner August 20 2014
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Commentary
Timing is everything
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The essential ingredient of politics is timing.
Former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau
A guest column in the St. Augustine Record
 Saturday by City Manager John Regan, just days before the August 26 primary election, is reminiscent of a hotly contested election campaign in 2002, when a beleaguered City Commission majority was threatened with being overthrown (and ultimately was).Regan's Top 10 goals for city life published Saturday echoed the city's Lightner Parking Facility City of St. Augustine Project Newsletter, a four-page glossy brochure mailed to residents in the closing weeks of the 2002 campaign. In 2002 three newcomers took the mayor's and two commission seats, and promptly shifted the contested garage location from the historic district to the Visitor Center and established a neighborhood associations program to give residents a stronger voice in local government. This year just one incumbent, current Mayor Joe Boles, is faced by an energetic "fact finder" in Nancy Shaver and former County Commission Chair Ken Bryan. Regan, who has his own fences to mend after giving $275,000 to a private 450th foundation that was never created and pushing for two businesses at Riberia Pointe - coral growing and an aquarium - that proved to lack credentials, had his column published eleven days before the August 26 primary election. The Lightner Parking Facility newsletter was mailed out during October 2002, ahead of the November 5 general election.
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Forgotten war
The US Army uniform of 1835-1850 is nearly as forgotten as the period it represents, between the War of 1812 and the Civil War of 1861-65.
Both the uniforms and ceremony significant to St. Augustine will be presented Saturday on the St. Francis Barracks parade grounds and National Cemetery as the West Point Society of North Florida hosts a reenactment of the burial of Seminole War dead beneath three distinctive coquina pyramids August 15, 1842.
The 1885 lithograph shows artillery, infantry and dragoon officers in full dress.
Representatives of thirteen reenactment units will take part in the ceremonies, beginning at 9:30 am with displays and parade formation on the St. Francis Barracks parade grounds.
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The most incisive comment on politics today is indifference
Walter Lippmann, A Preface to Politics, 1914
 There are 9,690 registered voters in the City of St. Augustine.
In 2012 there were 9,809 registered voters, and 2,419 votes were cast in the primary - 25 percent - in a single four-way race for a commission seat. Roxanne Horvath with 708 votes (29.27%) and Bruce Maguire with 689 (28.48%) moved on to the general election, won by Horvath.
This year there are three candidates each for mayor and for the commission seat vacated by Bill Leary.
If the same voter percentage turns out, 2,423 voters, 1,213 votes to a single candidate in each race would win it outright for those candidates - 50% plus one vote. Anything less and the top two vote getters in each race go the November general election.
A winner take all is doubtful in this year's primary. In the mayoral race Boles is the incumbent but apparently needs bolstering from the city manager, Shaver has earned her stripes with basic homework uncovering financial loses in the Picasso exhibit and credibility gaps in coral growing and aquarium plans for Riberia Pointe, and Ken Bryan is seasoned as a former County Commission chair.
In the commission race contractor/businessman John Valdes has 22 years' experience on city boards, Certified Public Accountant Todd Neville has no city board experience but many community activities, and Ron Berben is well meaning but has had little impact.
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An honor with a message
The honor for Victoria Bellucci was being asked to introduce President Barack Obama.
The message came at the Healthy Kids and Safe Sports Concussion Summit May 29 at the White House, with Victoria speaking as a champion high school soccer player whose sports career was ended by concussions.
Victoria will be entering Flagler College as a student, not student athlete.
"There was a time where I played on four teams at once," she says. "I always had practice. I always had games. It was all I knew. Now I've finally begun to discover other things. I have a social life. I can work. I help coach."
According to the Center for Disease Control, concussions in woman's soccer aren't just on the rise. They are the leading cause of concussions for females in high school sports. Soccer as a whole is second only to football.
"It's not really heading the ball like most people think," explained Victoria, who had to turn down a scholarship to play soccer at Towson University in Maryland. "It's misjudging when you go to head a ball with someone else and colliding heads or coming down and hitting your head on the ground."
Victoria is happy that stories like hers are getting attention, but she hopes they don't scare kids away from playing youth sports.
"I think most importantly people shouldn't be afraid to play," she says. "Playing a sport helped shape me into the person I've become, but we need to be more knowledgeable about safety to prevent these long term problems."
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
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In the mailbag
'Special character
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Sometimes the city commission just makes me laugh - the "special character of St. George St."? ......... Intimates, ........ ice cream, the t-shirt stores - ah, let me count the ways that St. George Street reflects the historic character of St. Augustine. Of course, I could include the barricade-like fences of the Colonial Quarter as well.
Don't get me wrong. There are some great stores - the Spanish Market, the improved Taberna, some good merchandise and clothing.
People come to St. Augustine because of its history. For heaven's sake, let them see it as they eat their ice cream.
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Commission to review proposed budget
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City commissioners will review the proposed city budget for 2014-15 in a workshop session at 8:15 am tomorrow in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
City staff was still finalizing the figures yesterday afternoon, but here's the breakout in this year's budget for the General Fund.
Largest sources producing $24,172,434 in revenue included
Ad Valorem Taxes $8,157,736
Franchise Fees $1,355,000
Utility Service Taxes $1,050,000
Communication Service Taxes $1,079,773
State Revenue Sharing $1,605,513
Parking Fees $1,873,932
Rental Income $1,248,002
Largest expenses in the General Fund
Police $5,890,836
Fire $3,305,743
Streets $1,832,040
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Visioning St. Augustine feelings
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Not your average town hall meeting, Monday's Visioning 2014 & Beyond community session at the Galimore Center was a series of "tabletop" discussions by attendees organized into groups to examine and comment on results of some 500 survey returns.
Facilitator Herb Marlowe focused on keywords like authentic, historic, unique, beautiful, quaint, livable, walkable, and well-maintained to draw out attendees' feelings about St. Augustine.
This was the ninth in a series of 21 steering committee workshops and town hall meetings scheduled to conclude next May with a presentation to the City Commission.
Two more town hall meetings and ten workshops are scheduled before that presentation.
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Gullah Geechee Commission plans
its annual meeting here in 2015
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The National Park Service Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission will hold its annual meeting in St. Augustine February 6, 2015.
It's a major milestone for residents Derek Hankerson and James Bullock, who began an effort seven years ago to extend the heritage corridor to St. Johns County and Fort Mose, the first free black settlement in today's America.
Derek is managing partner and producer at Freebooters Productions, and James Bullock actor and historic interpreter, Founder, and Creative Director.
The plan to extend the heritage corridor from its origin at Wilmington NC to St. Johns County was approved by the US Secretary of Interior in May 2013.
"Many locations in St. John's County and St. Augustine were established by West Africans, including Fort Mose, Little Africa or Lincolnville, and Armstrong to name a few," Derek says.
Gullah communities were established in the 16th Century by Africans left behind by Spanish explorers when establishment of a colony in 1526 failed in the Carolinas. The culture continues today, as does the Gullah language, partly derived from West African and Creole dialects.
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The Gullah Geechee
392 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
A corridor encompassing a cultural and linguistic area along the southeastern coast of the United States, from the northern border of Pender County, North Carolina to the southern border of St. Johns County, Florida and 30 miles inland, is home to the Gullah Geechee culture.
 The land mass, including the Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain and the 79 barrier islands that hug the coast, encompasses some 12,818 square miles, an area larger than the states of Maryland and Delaware combined.
It is home to one of the country's most unique cultures, a tradition first shaped by captive Africans brought to the southeastern United States from the primarily rice-producing regions of West and Central Africa. That culture continues today by their descendants, known as Gullah Geechee people.
Brought to the New World and forced to work on the coastal plantations of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, Gullah Geechee people developed a separate creole language and distinct culture patterns that included more of their African cultural traditions than the African-American populations in other parts of the United States.
Gullah Geechee people retained many aspects of their creole culture due to the geographic barriers that isolated these sea island communities. Although Gullah Geechee people traveled between nearby islands and the mainland, few outsiders entered the Gullah Geechee communities, particularly after the Civil War.
After their emancipation from slavery, the Gullah Geechee people's isolation became more of a choice, as people returned to their homes, communities and way of life. In these rural communities, Gullah Geechee people continued their language, arts, crafts, religious beliefs, folklore, rituals and food preferences, and a strong sense of place and family.
The Gullah Geechee peoples' traditional economic practice of farming, fishing, hunting, and small-scale marketing of subsistence products also continue today, yet many areas that once supported these activities have been replaced by coastal development.
From Gullah Geechee Corridor.org
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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 or gardnerstaug@yahoo.com
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