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Published by former Mayor George Gardner                     July 11 2015
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Millage rate may stay 

at 7.5 for seventh year

   City commissioners Monday will consider a millage rate of 7.5, holding that rate for the seventh consecutive year.

   The last increase was in 2009. From 6.82 to 7.5 mills.

   But it doesn't mean taxes won't go up. Home values are up 8.6 percent compared to last year, according to the St. Johns County Property Appraiser's Office, and property countywide is assessed annually at current fair market value. 

   Property taxes account for about a third of the $25,989,080 General Fund or operating budget. 

   The first public hearing on the 2015-16 budget will be Thursday, September 10, at 5:05 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.   

   The regular commission meeting at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room will follow two special meetings Monday to fill a vacancy on the Lincolnville Community Redevelopment Agency caused by the resignation of Laura Stevenson Dumas who has moved out of Lincolnville, and to look at the visitor center accounts and revenue producing opportunities.

Pablo Vena Aviles artist

visiting here

   A professional artist from Aviles, Spain, is visiting St. Augustine through July 21 to complete an obelisk for the international public art project, Obelisk Art 450, produced by Compassionate St. Augustine.

   Pablo Hugo Rozada Vena is one of more than two dozen artists creating designs on 8˝ foot obelisks replicating the city's Constitution Monument to represent the values of Freedom, Democracy, Human Rights and Compassion.

   Pablo is working during gallery hours Thursday through Monday and Sunday at Amiro Art + Design on Aviles Street.

   Caren Goldman of Compassionate St. Augustine will update commissioners Monday on progress in the Obelisk Art 450 program. 

Valdes Dow property
Tour St Aug
Trolley adv
adv EMMA

Plans to offset jump

in trash dumping fees

   The plan to offset "a sizable increase in tipping fees at the landfill" is to cut waste collection to one day a week and increase recycling collection, but first come the trash trucks.

  Public Works Director Martha Graham will ask commissioners Monday to authorize $500,000 from solid waste reserves for two new trucks to replace trucks being retired.

   Also in the works, recycling carts and recycling pickups by city crews rather than contractors such as Advanced Disposal, the city's current contractor.

   "As we move forward with these changes," Graham says in a memo to commissioners, "public works staff plans to have no less than four public workshops with neighborhood associations and at city hall over the next two months to inform residents about the upcoming changes and conduct overall recycling education and promotion."

 

Design standards 

go to public hearing

   Planning and Building Director David Birchim says, "There are two main changes to the Design Standards" for entry corridors going to public hearing and final action by city commissioners Monday.

   "First, a review process is introduced so that major project development can be reviewed by the Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) early in the design process."

   Second, certain architectural "typologies" established for styles in each entry corridor may not fit today, so "this second proposal establishes a process to amend an assigned typology so that properties can be developed in more appropriate styles if found to be different than what was assigned in the standards."

 

Event management

goes into a matrix

   Public Affairs Director Paul Williamson returns to the commission Monday to present an elaborate Event Management Strategic Initiative, including a scoring system to measure an event's impact on the community - that score to determine site use fee - and a potential fee increase for Francis Field and use fee for events on city streets.
   Commissioners in May asked Williamson to flesh out his ideas for review.

   He's developed a matrix that would measure an event's impact based on attendance, schedule, and time of day, location, and duration if in the right of way.

   He'll recommend giving the new process a year "to work through an annual events calendar, allow fees to be reflected in the budget, and provide opportunity to work in tandem with the efforts of livability and mobility."

In the mailbag

 Dow property

  Some thoughts on the Dow and other preservation issues.

   I'm not one to get too loud on anything political-people are nasty out there. But for your info I think, at least, the Dow project will preserve these great buildings. 

   It's just a shame when Dow wanted someone here to take responsibility for his donation no one stepped up and then those who did take over failed miserably to attract visitors. I mean the property has been an attraction already so, if parking and noise issues can be worked out then I'm ok with the project.

   I do worry about the neighborhoods. I firmly believe without people living downtown all is lost. On that note what I think is needed most is services for we who live here. We need a grocery store first. Hamblen Hardware was a great loss.

 

  Reenacting

   Not only was my son involved (in PBS filming of Siege of 1702) I was also along with my wife, daughter-in -law and two grandchildren. I helped the producers with some of the musket shots. 

   I'm a Florida native and my family goes back to the Spanish time. That's one reason I got into the reenactment efforts to try and save what we're losing to the - for lack of better words - carpetbaggers.  

   I truly miss the old St George St with real craftsmen and the smells coming from the different shops (leather, candles, wood working, blacksmith etc.

Waterworks rehab underway

Wolfe with project manager    $525,000 later, restoration of waterworks building on San Marco Avenue has begun.

   The century-old building has been closed for the past decade after exterior wall deterioration was found.   

   The $525,000 is a Special Category Grant, included in the budget signed recently by Governor Scott. The grant request was ranked fifth out of 33 projects statewide.

   Current focus is on stabilization of the north wall, full engineering and architectural plans necessary to complete rehabilitation, and securing the entire building from further deterioration.

   The current work is being documented with photographs, videos, and expert interviews to share progress and provide educational material for future generations and other communities with similarly constructed buildings. 

   Follow the progress at the St. Augustine Waterworks YouTube channel

  

Spanish Street one-way

   Commissioners Monday will consider formalizing Spanish Street one way north from Treasury to Orange Street, a design built into the recently completed improvements along Spanish, Hypolita and Cuna streets. First reading Monday if approved will be followed by second reading, public hearing and final action July 27.


 

History's highlight

St. Augustine's General Hardin

60 days to St.  Augustine's 450th anniversary

  In our last History's Highlight, a reader questioned how Civil War Union General Martin D. Hardin could have also been a former aide to Robert E. Lee. It's true. Along with other interesting facts about the general who lived here for a time.  

   From  Wikipedia  

Hardin

   Martin Davis Hardin (June 26, 1837 - December 12, 1923) was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was appointed a brigadier general on July 6, 1864, to rank from July 2, 1864, the date of U.S. Senate confirmation of his promotion.

   Martin D. Hardin was born in Jacksonville, Illinois, and was a family friend and protégé of Abraham Lincoln (it was at the Hardin family home that Lincoln first met his wife, Mary Todd).

   Hardin graduated from West Point in the Class of 1859, and was an aide to Robert E. Lee in the hanging of John Brown soon after. He lost his left arm in the Mine Run Campaign, but continued serving in the army.

   He was mustered out of the volunteer service in June 1864 but returned to active duty on July 2 with an appointment to brigadier general. General Hardin commanded a division in the XXII Corps during the battle of Fort Stevens.

   After retiring in December 1870, he became a lawyer in Chicago, and had a winter home in St. Augustine, Florida. His second wife, Amelia McLaughlin (1863-1939) was the sister-in-law of Irene Castle, the well-known dancer.

   Hardin spent his last years in the famous "Union Generals' House" at 20 Valencia Street in St. Augustine (saved from a proposed demolition by Flagler College in the 1980s through the concerted action of local history lovers).

   Hardin was one of the last surviving Civil War generals of either side at the time of his death in 1923. He is buried, with his wife, at the U.S. National Cemetery in St. Augustine. His widow honored him by building a chapel (complete with a statue of St. Martin) on the grounds of the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine. 

 
   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