Published by former Mayor George Gardner November 5 2014
The Report is an independent publication serving our community
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Elected
Shaver, Sikes-Kline, Neville Nancy Shaver ended Mayor Joe Boles' bid for a fifth term Tuesday, winning the mayor's seat by 119 votes.
Shaver had 2,650 votes to Boles' 2,531.
Incumbent Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline defeated Grant Misterly 2,878 to 2,084, and Todd Neville beat John Valdes 2,720 to 2,217.
Shaver, a business analyst, promised to gather facts and find solutions, and to involve the community in that effort.
Boles was endorsed by the St. Augustine Record, saying "We'll take business as usual, with Joe Boles on board."
Neville, an accountant, promised "A city focused on core municipal services at the top of its priority list (and) A city focused on customer service to its residents and stakeholders."
Valdes, a veteran of 22 years on several city boards, focused on control of development, updating zoning codes and promoting neighborhood preservation.
Sikes-Kline, entering her second four-year term, ran as "a thoughtful, reasonable, civic leader who works hard for issues people care about."
Grant Misterly, an engineer, focused on zoning, infrastructure and finances.
It was likely the most expensive campaign in city history, Neville topping the contributor list at $43,145 and Boles at $36,111.69.
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Clybourne Park
then and now
In 1959, nervous community leaders anxiously try to stop the sale of a home to a black family.
Today, the now predominantly African-American neighborhood battles to hold its ground in the face of gentrification.
A special benefit performance of Clybourne Park, the Tony, Pulitzer and Oliver prize-winning play that "applies a modern twist to the issues of race and housing and aspirations for a better life" says the Washington Post, will be presented in Limelight Theatre's Koger-Gamache Studio Saturday in cooperation with Lift Up Lincolnville to help raise funds for Lincolnville's Eddie Vickers Park.
Showtime 7:30 pm. Tickets $50. Call the Limelight box office 904-825-1164.
The show runs November 7-30 with tickets $25.
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7-Eleven historic
building threat?
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 The waterworks building on San Marco Avenue is on the National Register of Historic Places, within the Nelmar Terrace National Register District.
It sits across the street from the proposed 7-11 gas station site.
The city is applying for a $350,000 state grant to restore the waterworks building.
"When state or federal funds are used for a project, like for example if the DOT (Florida Department of Transportation) is doing something adjacent to a historic structure or district, an Assessment of Effect document is required," Archaeologist/Preservationist Marsha A. Chance says.
"In 2002 I wrote such a document for the neighborhood association downtown, regarding the planned parking lot to be built behind the Lightner Museum. ... It was a 50 page document with 6 appendices. Once any effects are defined, then it has to be determined whether they are adverse or not. Too many adverse effects can stop a project.
"Adverse effects can include things like view shed, mass and scale, shadow, proximity, landscape, vehicular increase, traffic problems, pedestrian increase, lighting, and security.
"The point of this is to say that the waterworks building, which the City has just had listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will certainly be adversely affected by the 7-11.
"Again, ironically, they are talking about making it into an archaeology museum."
Also, ironically
Chance adds, "In addition, I was formerly the FDOT District 2 archaeologist, and I know that the District did originally plan to construct a roundabout at the corner of May and San Marco.
The local citizens who attended the public meetings hated the idea, even though it was the only thing that made sense, especially in terms of traffic predictions for the future (now). The plan was shelved because of citizen outcry."
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First sites selected for Obelisk Art 450
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 Twenty five preliminary sites have been selected for Compassionate St. Augustine's Obelisk Art 450 project, ultimately to include thirty 8½ foot replicas of the city's Constitution Monument.
"We are currently looking into which permits we may need for each site and the process for obtaining each one," says Compassionate St. Augustine co-founder Caren Goldman.
One example of that complexity: "(City Attorney) Isabelle Lopez said we cannot use the Menorcan Pocket Park on Hypolita for a site (for Menorcan heritage). The legislation prohibiting street performers also applies to art."
Four will be placed at the Visitor Center to represent "how Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights and Compassion express themselves in the Spanish Constitution and the History of St. Augustine," Says Caren.
Bill Goode of Goode Works Custom Cabinets is crafting the obelisks of plywood coated inside and out with fiberglass, to be finished by artists with their creative designs during the 2015 city commemoration year.
"They will be mounted on concrete bases and they will be able to withstand whatever weather comes our way" Caren promises.
Obelisk Art 450 has been made possible through a $30,000 grant from the Dr. JoAnne Crisp-Ellert Fund.
Visit www.compassionatestaugustine.org.
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Managing commercial delivery traffic
 A study by the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization (NFTPO), aimed at developing a commercial delivery management plan for downtown St. Augustine, is expected to be completed by June 2015.
City and NFTPO officials met last week to outline the study scope and beef up current enforcement efforts.
The study will locate and analyze problem areas, routing issues, signage, time of day, regulations and loading zones, officials say.
Public Works Director Martha Graham said renewed enforcement of city code restrictions on size and routes of large vehicles will begin in December with issuance of warnings to educate drivers. Ticketing will begin in January with $100 fines for violations.
NFTPO presentation here.
The vision of Visioning 2014 & Beyond
St. Augustine will be small, livable, pedestrian friendly, historic, bay front city that appreciates its rich history and environment, offers an abundance of cultural amenities, retains basic services such as grocery and pharmacy and has maintained its affordability for families, young persons and people of various means.
A vision for Visioning 2014 & Beyond underwent review Monday by its Steering Committee, the first version of "what is likely to go through a great many revisions," members say, as the committee "continues its work of carefully distilling input from the community into a well-honed vision for the city."
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Gentler pirates gathering
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 Piracy has mellowed over the years.
First, the Ancient City Privateers hosting the 7th annual St. Augustine Pirate Gathering this weekend at Francis Field is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.
Then proceeds (formerly booty) from the affair will go toward providing local children with the ability to attend summer camp through the Lighthouse Maritime Archeology Program rather than pirate chests.
And they'll have a Kids Fun Zone including pony rides.
Not to disappoint the bloodthirsty, they'll take on the local Spanish garrison. Over the past six years each side has won three skirmishes.
Look for a formal pirate ball Friday night to allow the ladies and gentlemen to dress in their finest pirate garb and throughout the weekend black powder demonstrations, live music, a living history encampment, arts & craft vendors, food, even a chance to have a local celebrity walk the plank into a dunk tank as part of a St. Francis House fundraiser.
Visit the website. www.thepirategathering.com
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History's Highlight
The age of piracy
308 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
March 24, 1683, 230 buccaneers land near Ponce de León Inlet, 70 miles south of San Agustín and, flying French colors, march toward the presidio. They capture the Ayamón and Matanzas watchtowers, torturing the soldados they've seized for information on the town's defenses.
The discovery of the Americas in 1492 brought new opportunities for wealth to the crowns of Europe - and to pirates, creating legends of the pirate's life romanticized today, but terrorizing at the time.
The legendary pirates we know today sailed about the Caribbean and North American settlements from the mid-1500s to the early 1700s. Here the earliest Spanish explorers discovered gold and silver to be transported to their homeland.
Laying in wait along the route, occupying some ports and raiding others, were the pirates. They were born overnight in this new world. St. Augustine Historian Eugene Lyon, in his The Enterprise of Florida, describes trouble in the French Huguenot colony, Fort Caroline, a year before Pedro Menendez' voyage to drive out the French and found St. Augustine.
"An increasing shortage of supplies and a desire for adventure provoked some of the garrison to mutiny. Eleven mutineers fled the fort first, taking a small shallop and setting course for the Caribbean. Three weeks later, on December 18, 1564, seventy men from the garrison ... departed on a voyage of adventure among the Antilles in two small sailing craft."
The pirate attack of March 24, 1683, involved French and English buccaneers from New Providence in the Bahamas, who joined forces to attack San Agustín. The buccaneers reached today's Anastasia Island, eight miles south of the town where, on March 31, they were ambushed by 30 Spanish musketeers and routed.
In the 1700s there was lively shipping between Spanish St. Augustine and English territories to the north. Each had goods the other wanted, and though each country outlawed trade, ways were found to exchange goods. But it was always a guessing game, depending on world affairs; a merchant ship one day might be a privateer or outright pirate the next.
It was piracy used as a tool in international trade conflicts - the government-sanctioned privateers - that brought about its downfall. The Declaration of Paris in 1856, signed by England, France, Spain, and most other European nations, abolished the use of piracy for state purposes.
Pirates, previously unidentified in individual or state laws, became a legally distinct category of international criminals, and piracy became and remains today an international crime.
Excerpts from The Pirates in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories. Click for further information on this fascinating historic series.
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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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