Published by former Mayor George Gardner
The Report is an independent publication serving our community
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Seawall promenade extension on HARB list
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The city plan to extend the new seawall promenade to the Municipal Marina goes to the Historic Architectural Review Board December 18 for review.
A $240,650 plan was approved by the City Commission last year to create a multipurpose area and extend the promenade between the Marina and Bridge of Lions.
General Services Director Jim Piggott suggested the multipurpose area would include a temporary kiosk serving coffee and snacks - "temporary because we plan to expand the marina restrooms as visitation grows."
Financing is expected from remaining monies of the seawall project, marina reserves, mini golf rental fees, and excess from increased Visitor Center parking structure revenues.
The Historic Architectural Review Board, convening at 2 pm December 18 in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, will also consider the placement of two marble lions on the east end of the Bridge of Lions, a proposal presented and to be financed by Davis Shores residents Wolfgang and Miki Schau "as a gift to the City of St. Augustine for the 450th."
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St. Augustine
Military Ball
The pomp and protocol of an elegant military gala will kick off St. Augustine's 450th year on January 17.
Forward March, Inc., spearheading renovation of the historic Hamblen House/C.F. Hamblen American Legion Post 37, will host the Inaugural St. Augustine Military Ball 6-11 pm at the Mark W. Lance Armory on San Marco Avenue.
The Black Tie/Military Dress Uniform event is open to the public. Limited reservations are $75/person and can be made at 904-794-2883. Proceeds will benefit the renovation.
This year's Ball will honor Major General Emmett R. Titshaw, Jr., retiring Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard.
Forward March, Inc. plans to make the Military Ball an annual event to support veterans and active duty personnel and to instill pride of country and civic responsibility in our local youth.
Visit the website.
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Click for our web page
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Activist Ed Slavin is expected to make his appeal before the City Commission Monday of the Historic Architectural Review Board's approval of partial demolition of Lincolnville's Echo House, but he won't be allowed to wander the city offices.
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Slavin was issued a trespass warning Wednesday, hand-delivered by City Manager John Regan and Police Chief Loran Lueders.
"The problem has been that he has been inappropriately inserting himself into work spaces and attempting to order staff on what they should and shouldn't be doing" said Regan.
Slavin responded in an email the action is "defamatory, reckless, retaliatory, scandalous, meretricious and utterly unauthorized by City Commissioners.
"City managers are not the 'owner' of City Hall -- the citizens are sovereign and have a right to access our documents without being required to make 'appointments,'" wrote Slavin.
His appeal of the partial demolition will be a real first test for the city's new Mayor Nancy Shaver and Commissioner Todd Neville. Slavin's original appeal ranged through a wide area of city and civil actions before the previous commission narrowed it to appeal on "consistency with the comprehensive plan."
City Attorney Isabelle Lopez told commissioners she cautioned Slavin, "his standing is limited to consistency with the comprehensive plan, specifically limited to HP Policy as he stated in his amended appeal."
That HP Policy refers to City Code provisions for demolitions.
The commission meeting begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
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Commission to tackle
board adjustments
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City Manager John Regan has a full slate of details Monday as the new City Commission continues adjusting to its functions.
Included:
Selection of a commissioner to fill the expiring term of former Mayor Joe Boles on the St. Johns County Tourist Development Council (TDC). The term is four years.
Commission assignments to intergovernmental boards.
Update on citizen advisory boards.
Update on the Strategic Plan and a possible future workshop to establish baseline data, metrics and reworking of existing objectives.
Renewal of neighborhood
grant program possible
Among citizen advisory board recommendations is reestablishment of a Neighborhood Grants Panel, established a decade ago along with the neighborhood associations program. Grants were offered for neighborhood projects such as street sign toppers identifying neighborhoods and pocket parks like one created by the Nelmar Terrace Neighborhood Association.
Also recommended is reactivation of a three-member San Sebastian Project Architectural Review Committee with the recent sale of the Sebastian Inland Harbor property to Summit Hospitality.
Recommended for sunsetting (discontinuing) are the Aggregation Ordinance Task Force, created during the real estate boom of the mid-2000s, the Citizen Advisory Task Force for the now-complete Seawall Project, the Entrance Corridor Review Committee whose work is now handled by the Historic Architectural Review Board, and the Historic Preservation Advisory Committee.
Parking/Traffic panel redesign
Commissioners will consider restructuring the Parking and Traffic Advisory Committee to a nine-member board including two business owners, a Flagler College representative and student, and five residents, all appointed by the City Commission.
The members would have staggered 3-year terms with a two-term limit.
The committee makes recommendations to the commission and to the Planning and Zoning Board.
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Entry corridor variances, marijuana in public hearings
An ordinance that creates a process for variances to the entry corridor guidelines for signage types and paint colors goes to public hearing and final action before the City Commission Monday. It was prompted by a creatively painted car wash on Anastasia Boulevard that neighbors supported and urging for street front signage by businesses set back from the street.
Three ordinances to prepare the city for future marijuana cultivation and sale also go to public hearing and final action. The ordinances specify cultivation and processing of the plant "as a use by exception in the Industrial and Warehousing (IW) zoning category, and limit retail sale locations to US 1.
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DATE OR SABAL PALMS? - An appeal of sorts goes to the City Commission Monday from Florida Department of Transportation landscape architect Ken Cheek. The issue: Sabal or date palms to line SR 16 on both sides of the bridge off US 1. The city Street Tree Advisory Committee favored sabal palms, but Cheek suggests, "date palms will make more of a statement as the sabals are overused in the region," and the tree committee wouldn't meet again until March to reconsider.
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San Marco/May Street intersection
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 Expect a full house at the main library on US 1 December 15 as the Florida Department of Transportation invites the public "to discuss proposed improvements to the intersection of US 1 (Ponce de Leon Blvd.) at San Carlos Ave. and the intersections of San Marco Ave. (State Road A1A) at San Carlos Ave. and May St. (State Road A1A)."
It's all part of the tangle of roads which has created congestion and consternation with a plan to add a 7-Eleven with 12 gas pumps. A city permit for the project will be appealed to the City Commission a month later, January 15.
The session begins at 4:30 pm with the comment portion starting at 6:30. It's part of the FDOT's Project Development and Environment phase.
Push for King Street project
"Conspicuously absent" from a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) tentative five-year work program for St. Johns County is funding for the King Street drainage project, Public Works Director Martha Graham will tell commissioners Monday.
"Locals had anticipated (this) would be scheduled for 2017," she says in a memo recommending a letter to FDOT supporting the project for 2017.
Projects that are included are intersection improvements in 2017 at San Carlos and US 1 and resurfacing in 2018 on US 1 between SR 207 and the north City Gate and San Marco, South Castillo and Avenida Menendez to the Bridge of Lions.
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History's Highlight
Fateful December day
277 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
December 28, 1835, a column of 110 American soldiers under Major Francis L. Dade was completing a 100-mile march from Fort Brooke, near Tampa, to Fort King at Ocala. Their greatcoats shielded them against the chill, but also delayed getting to the cartridge boxes on their belts. Whether this would have affected the outcome is doubtful.
 Concealed along the edge of Wahoo Swamp, some 40 miles south of Fort King, 180 Seminoles lay in wait.
Halpatter Tustenuggee (Alligator, as the white men called him): "We had been preparing for this more than a year... Just as the day was breaking, we moved out of the swamp into the pine-barren. ...Upon approaching the road, each man chose his position on the west side...
"About nine o'clock in the morning the command approached... So soon as all the soldiers were opposite... Micanopy fired the first rifle, the signal agreed upon, when every Indian arose and fired, which laid upon the ground, dead, more than half the white men. The cannon was discharged several times, but the men who loaded it were shot down as soon as the smoke cleared away...
"As we were returning to the swamp supposing all were dead, an Indian came up and said the white men were building a fort of logs. Jumper and myself, with ten warriors, returned. As we approached, we saw six men behind two logs placed one above another, with the cannon a short distance off... We soon came near, as the balls went over us. They had guns, but no powder, we looked in the boxes afterwards and found they were empty." (From the Dade Battlefield Society website )
Three survived Dade's Massacre. Ransome Clarke managed to reach Fort Brooke; another was caught and killed, and the third reached the fort but died shortly after of his wounds.
It would be the preamble to the Second Seminole War. Major Dade and his command are among 1,468 soldiers killed during that seven-year war, at rest beneath three coquina pyramids in the National Cemetery on Marine Street.
The Dade Massacre is included in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories. For holiday gift-giving, 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 a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com or gardnerstaug@yahoo.com
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