Published by former Mayor George Gardner May 27 2015
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 Memorial Day 2015
Hundreds filled the St, Augustine National Cemetery Monday for ceremonies honoring American service men and women.
The 10 am ceremonies included a massing of the colors by numerous military and civilian agencies and community organizations and the solemn reading of the roll of military and veterans who died since Veterans Day.
The ceremonies then moved to the War Memorial in the Plaza de la Constitución, where Nicole Rapicault, mother of Marine Capt. Patrick Rapicault who was killed in 2004 while serving in Iraq, unveiled a new plaque.
Now added to the memorial honoring St. Johns County men and women who died in World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars are the names of service men who have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
While those conflicts are continuing Kay Burtin, past president of the Pilot Club which erected and oversees the memorial, explained the club got permission from the Military Order of the World Wars to set the plaque at this time.
With Captain Rapicault on that plaque:
82nd Airborne Sergeant Bryan Tutten, killed in 2007 in Iraq.
Chief Warrant Officer Four Chris Scherkenbach, killed in 2005 in Afghanistan.
Army National Guard Sergeant John Blair, killed in 2009 in Afghanistan.
The ceremonies were presented by the Military Officers Association of America, the Florida National Guard and the Veterans Council of St. Johns County, with the Pilot Club overseeing the War Memorial dedication.
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The Driftwoods and their bluegrass with a touch of swing open the 25th season of St. Augustine's Concerts in the Plaza de la Constitución Thursday.
The summer-long music series continues from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The concerts begin at 7 pm. See the full schedule here.
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PUD action delayed by
demolition appeal
Those forces for and against planned unit development (PUD) zoning had further reason to get fired up last week as David Corneal's request for a PUD on the former Dow Museum of Houses was further tabled due to the filing of an appeal on demolition of one of the houses, the Carpenter's House.
Though that house was demolished within days of Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) approval in April, activist Ed Slavin filed the appeal, saying the house had been determined to be in safe condition.
City Attorney Isabel Lopez advised the HARB members further action should be delayed until "such time as final determination has been made by the City Commission on such appeal. And no action shall be taken by the applicant or the Planning and Building Department during such time which would change the status of the matter being appealed."
The Planning and Zoning Board has already approved the PUD, with conditions and by a 5-2 vote.
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Ponce Mall has
a church suitor
When Regal Cinemas closed years back, Anchor Faith Church took over the vacancy.
Now, with the closing of the mall's interior, the church would like to buy the entire mall.
Anchor Faith Church Pastor Earl Glisson says he's been negotiating with Hull Property Group of Augusta, Georgia. The church space includes a cafe and preschool, and Glisson says a private school is being considered.
The once vibrant mall originally had 29 retail spaces with two anchor stores and the Regal Cinemas. Today it is nearly vacant, with anchors JC Penney and Belks continuing to operate, accessed through outside doors.
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History awash
'Oldest city could be screwed by rising seas'
Suzanne Jacobs is blunt in an assessment of rising sea levels and what is - or isn't - being done about it.
"Rising seas are about to engulf the oldest city in the U.S., and it doesn't look like anyone's going to do anything about it," she writes in Grist.org. "That's because the city of St. Augustine happens to be in Florida, where pythons roam free, Mickey Mouse is king, and climate change doesn't exist.
"St. Augustine is home to Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth, an old military fortress, and - like any respectable historical site - plenty of brick roads and old-ass buildings. The 450-year-old national landmark also happens to be one of many cities along Florida's coast getting increasingly worried about rising seas - a curious trend, given the state's exemption from a certain global phenomenon.
"To figure out what the state plans to do about these mysterious rising seas, Associated Press reporters sifted through thousands of state documents and emails. Here's what they found:"
Rising sea levels threaten historic Jamestown
Associated Press reported in 2013:
Jamestown Island, where most of Jamestown is located, lies 3 feet or less above the tidal James River. Scientists project that it will be underwater by 2100 but flooding will increase long before then.
Storms and erosion already have taken their toll. The island was created by an 18th-century storm that punctured a land bridge that once connected the Jamestown peninsula to the mainland. More recently, much of the island was flooded in 2003 by Hurricane Isabel, which damaged a visitor center and caused $3.5 million in damage to ceramics, metal tools and other artifacts in the center. In 2011, a seawall protecting Jamestown's historic fort site was damaged by Hurricane Irene.
"What we're seeing and what's being predicted is the sea-level rise is going to exacerbate everything," Dorothy Geyer, the natural-resource specialist for the Colonial National Historical Park, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Preservation Virginia also has taken steps to protect Jamestown. When storms approach, its plan calls for sandbags to be placed around the fort and church areas. To guard against flooding, an archaeology museum and some other buildings constructed in recent years were elevated.
Unlike other low places threatened by rising seas, the solution is not moving buildings and people. Jamestown is comprised of marshes and historic sites that still contain artifacts underground.
"You can't move history," said Carl Hobbs, a marine geologist with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science.
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Sales tax hike to go to voters
Even the County Commission is not sure - a 3-2 vote last week will send the question of a one-cent countywide sales tax increase to the voters in November.
The session lasted more than 3˝ hours with more than three dozen speakers among some 200 gathered at the county auditorium.
If adopted by voters, the tax would take effect January 1 and sunset in 10 years. Use of the additional funds would be limited to construction of public facilities, roads, stormwater facilities and libraries. An oversight committee would keep an eye on the funds.
A privately funded survey found 63 percent of 514 voters sampled in favor of the increase.
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 Fullerwood neighbors celebrated the opening of the Fullerwood Garden Sunday with all gardening boxes in full bloom - or nearly.
The garden adjacent to Fullerwood Park on Hildreth Avenue was developed by Gina Burrell with a team of helpers, including students of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind who built the raised boxes with donated lumber. Two water spigots with hoses help gardeners keep their flowers and vegetables growing.
Fullerwood Garden is patterned after the much large Lincolnville Community Garden at Eddie Vickers Park.
Last Saturday events
The community has taken to adopting days of each month for their events, like this Saturday - the last of the month. Along St. George Street and at Government House from 6:15 - 7:15 pm witness the Changing of the Guard by the 1740 Spanish Garrison, while from 5 - 9 take in Uptown Saturday Night along San Marco Avenue.
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British St. Augustine 1770
105 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
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William Dewhurst's 1880 History of St. Augustine describes a variety of assessments of the 300-year-old town when the British took over in 1763, perhaps most thorough that of the English surveyor-general, Gerard De Brahm:
 "At the time the Spaniards left the town, all the gardens were well stocked with fruit trees, viz.: figs, guavas, plantain, pomegranates, lemons, limes, citrons, shaddock, bergamot, China and Seville oranges, the latter full of fruit throughout the whole winter season.
"The town is three quarters of a mile in length, but not a quarter wide; had four churches ornamentally built with stone in the Spanish taste, of which one within and one without the town exist.
"All the houses are built of masonry; their entrances are shaded by piazzas, supported by Tuscan pillars or pilasters against the south sun. The houses have to the east windows projecting sixteen or eighteen inches into the street, very wide and proportionally high.
On the west side, their windows are commonly very small, and no opening of any kind on the north, on which side they have double walls six or eight feet asunder, forming a kind of gallery which answers for cellars and pantries.
"Before most of the entrances were arbors of vines, producing plenty and very good grapes. No house has any chimney or fireplace; the Spaniards made use of stone urns, filled them with coals left in their kitchens in the afternoon, and set them at sunset in their bedrooms to defend themselves against those winter seasons which required such care.
"The soil in the gardens and environs of the town is chiefly sandy and marshy. The Spaniards seem to have had a notion of manuring their land with shells one foot deep."
In 1770, according to De Brahm, there were 288 householders - exclusive of women and children - of whom 31 were storekeepers and traders, 3 haberdashers, 15 innkeepers, 45 artificers and mechanics, no planters, 4 hunters, 6 cow-keepers, 11 overseers, 12 draftsmen in the employ of the government, besides mathematicians.
Fifty-eight had left the province, and 28 had died, of whom 4 were killed acting as constables, and two hanged for piracy.
Image: Spanish loggia from Dewhurst's History of St. Augustine
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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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