Published by former Mayor George Gardner
The Report is an independent publication serving our community
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City Commission
reorganizes Monday
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 Two new faces join St. Augustine's City Commission Monday as the five-member board reorganizes to face the challenges ahead.
Ceremonies begin at 7:30 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall to swear in new Mayor Nancy Shaver and Commissioner Todd Neville and reelected Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline.
Mayor - Nancy Shaver replaces four-term Mayor Joe Boles. A resident of five years, Nancy is a relative newcomer to the city but not to problem solving, with more than 30 years in business consulting. She promises community involvement in gathering facts and finding solutions.
Commissioner - Todd Neville takes the seat being vacated by Don Crichlow, appointed earlier to replace Bill Leary who resigned. Todd, a certified public accountant, puts core municipal services at the top of his priority list with a focus on customer service to residents and stakeholders.
Commissioner - Nancy Sikes-Kline returns for a second four-year term after a previous two years. A workhorse who's brought transportation studies and funding from her representation on the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, Nancy promises, "a thoughtful, reasonable civic leader who works hard for issues people care about."
At the midpoint of their four-year terms are:
Commissioner - Leanna Freeman, a former vice mayor, who's often challenged city expenditures, particularly the city hall-managed 450th commemoration, joining Commissioner Sikes-Kline recently in voting against both additional 450th funding and the city budget which included it.
Commissioner - Roxanne Horvath pledged a new vision project during her campaign two years ago and now heads up Visioning 2014 and Beyond, an updating of former Mayor Greg Baker's 1995 vision project.
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Arts & Crafts
Festival weekend
Thanksgiving weekend means the annual St. Augustine Art & Craft Festival - this year the 49th hosted by the St. Augustine Art Association.
More than 150 vendors fill Francis Field today (10-5 pm) and Sunday (10-4:30 pm) with a wide variety of painting, pottery, jewelry, sculpture, fiber art ...
Find a vendor map here.
Photo: Jacksonville.com
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Challenges ahead
on city's agendas
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That new commission will begin work Monday, December 8, while its Planning and Zoning Board (PZB) begins work next Tuesday and its Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) December 18.
Each board has a new member, appointed as one of the final acts of the previous commission.
PZB - Sarah Ryan, an architect, has a resume including work on the Roanoke VA City Market, Takoma Park WA Takoma Walk, and Fredericksburg VA master plan.
HARB - Matt Armstrong, a historic preservationist heading the Government House Digital Preservation Center, is a board member of the Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association and has previous experience with the St. Augustine Lighthouse, Florida Public Archaeology Network and city archaeology program.
How tall Ponce Hotel?
 | | Renderings for 5-story (top) and 4-story hotel plans |
Hotelier Kanti Patel returns to the Planning and Zoning Board Tuesday in an effort to get approval for a five-story hotel on a portion of the former Bozard Ford property on US 1.
After assurances from City Attorney Isabelle Lopez last month that allowing a taller building would not set a precedent for future projects, the board asked Patel representative Mark Knight - former city planning and building director - to provide more detail.
The board will also consider a request for a parking lot and removal of preserved trees adjacent to David Corneal's renovation of the former M&M Market on Bridge Street for a restaurant and apartments. Also on the agenda, a definition of Special Events Venues, prompted by such a proposal for the "Lions Castle" in Davis Shores.
The PZB meeting begins at 2 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
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And deliveries downtown
City officials Tuesday will spell out new delivery zones and strict enforcement of vehicle size within the historic corridor in a session at 10 am in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
Public Works Director Martha Graham has provided preview information to commercial delivery operators including new restrictions, a truck route map and simple size classification chart.
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Spanish Brass to visit city
Area schools and THE PLAYERS Championship Boys & Girls Club will be treated to performances by Spanish Brass, created in 1989 by five Spanish musicians that quickly became world renowned for its performances, educational activities and creative collaborations.
Residents will be able to share in the experience Thursday, December 11, at 7 pm in the pool area of the Lightner Museum.
City Manager John Regan says, "This spectacular, world-class musical event ... is a tremendous opportunity for our community."
Underwritten by Historic Tours of America, the visit is sponsored by DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel St. Augustine Historic District, Beaches Fine Arts Series, Jacksonville Beach, and The Raintree Restaurant.
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The meaning of Thanksgiving
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It began with a handful of volunteers on a cold, rainy Thanksgiving morning under a makeshift tent on West King Street.
More than a decade later, Thursday morning's Hope and Deliverance Ministry Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless filled the Ketterlinus gymnasium on Orange Street with scores of volunteers and more than 100 homeless men, women and children, lining food service tables, sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner and sorting and poring over donated clothes, toys and toiletries.
Even West Augustine's Wildflower Clinic was set up to assist folks with medical services.
Hope and Deliverance Pastor Joanne Mcglocking beamed as her personal and church family directed Live Generously tee-shirted volunteers and Police Sergeant Jennifer Michaux arrived with a coffee percolator to augment the one already perking. Hope and Deliverance will do it again Christmas Eve morning from 9 to noon at the Ketterlinus gym, while Rick and Dottie Aeppli's Rick and Friends Annual Christmas Dinner for the homeless will be served Christmas day 11 am to 2 pm at the Armory on San Marco Avenue.
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History's Highlight
Cold poverty
284 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
I want to read you a letter that was published in one of the most conservative papers in New York City, a letter from an unemployed man, faithfully describing the misery which many thousands in New York City are now suffering.
A letter recently appeared in your columns in regard to the large number of men out of work in this city, a large proportion of whom have no homes, and are forced to walk the streets by day and night. The writer of the letter urged that something be done to provide at least shelter from the winters cold to these unfortunate individuals during the cold hours of the night.
 It would be a boon, indeed, if these men had only a place in which they could sit down and rest in the long, weary, inhospitable night.
I can speak feelingly and personally, for I am one of those so situated, and have bitter experience of the silent misery. I and my brothers in distress have to suffer under the deplorable conditions now existing. It is a terrible state of things in this enlightened age.
We are not criminals. We are not vicious. Many of us doubtless have not been so saving and thrifty as we might have been in times past, but the majority of us are willing to work, and would cheerfully and eagerly work if we knew where to find it.
We gladly afford ourselves of the shelter afforded by libraries, reading rooms, missions, etc., but when these places close up and at night, we are turned out into the streets to tramp, tramp up and tramp down. There is nowhere else to go.
Where do we sleep? We don't sleep because, situated as we are, we are positively denied any opportunity to do so. If tired, overtaxed nature asserts herself and you nod over a book in a reading room; you are quickly invited to take a walk, and if you don't go, the invitation is withdrawn and you are brutally ordered to go out. And of course if a poor devil falls asleep in a mission, he is shaken and kept awake, willy-nilly.
I myself have not been in a bed, or had any opportunity to sleep - outside of once - for five days and nights, and have not had my shoes off during that time.
Can you realize what it means to be deprived of sleep in this cruel manner? I am dazed and nearly crazy, and how is it all going to end? I find myself dully wondering.
I manage to get a morsel to eat and so keep body and soul together, by becoming one of the units in the "Bread Line" at midnight, after standing therein two hours, patiently waiting all that time in order that one may not miss the dole, which a later comer might be unfortunate enough to do."
George R. Lunn sermon, February, 1908
Image: Boys huddled by heat grate in turn of century New York City
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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 a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com or gardnerstaug@yahoo.com
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