Published by former Mayor George Gardner December 12 2015
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Residents mount campaign
against city's noisemakers
 ... I am sitting at my desk with an open window to Granada and King Streets. The trains are more subdued but there is still cheering from time to time which I imagine to be at the behest of the driver. I'll get a more detailed report as to which train company and precise location and time during tomorrow's noise shift.
... 11 pm and singer at Mardi Gras is so loud I can hear every word. Seems to be just a singer with guitar. Will also keep log
... First, I would like to thank Leonard and Ron for getting the Green and Red trains to agree to cease and desist from shouting matches during the Nights of Lights period. ... Please try to make it a point to walk around downtown during the height of the holiday season and report any excesses.
Sounds of the season notwithstanding, residents are mounting a campaign against noise, including sightseeing tour train-loads shouting as they pass other trains or groups of people.
What began with those tour trains in the Historic district, SOUNDSCAPE 450 is well organized, with residents monitoring tour trains and the like, bar/restaurant/special events/after hours noise and the like, aircraft, and cannon firings.
Email exchanges share findings from throughout the city.
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Special meet on that congestion
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City commissioners will meet in special session at 4 pm Monday to discuss "Opportunities and issues regarding the regulation of right-of-way uses."
It promises to be a primer on a number of unregulated vehicles, like pedicabs, Segways, electric tour vehicles and the like.
The session precedes the regular commission meeting at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall.
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 Parking added for holidays
If you've ever seen the Lord's Prayer engraved on a pinhead, you have some idea of parking on a St. Augustine weekend.
Not to miss a revenue opportunity, city officials say 450 spaces will be added in Francis Field holiday weekends - at $12 a space.
Entry area same as the visitor center parking facility. Dates: December 11, 12, 18, 19, 24 and 28.
Other areas (some may charge for parking)
Ameris Bank, 790 N. Ponce de Leon Blvd.;
St. Johns County Public Library, 1960 N. Ponce de Leon Blvd.;
Mission Nombre de Dios, Old Mission Ave at San Marco Ave.;
United Way of St. Johns County, 117 Bridge St.; and
Eddie Vickers Park, 399 Riberia St.
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Ordinances fill
final 2015 agenda
Fourteen ordinances will fill some time at Monday's City Commission meeting, the last of 2015.
The meeting begins at 5 pm in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, and will be live streamed on CoSATV. Seven ordinances will be considered for advancement to public hearings at a later date, while another seven will have public hearings and final action.
First Reading no hearing Two ordinances to rezone 1 Nelmar Street from commercial to residential. Part of the former 7-Eleven site purchased by the city is a vacant house recently tented to prepare it for sale. A PUD Amendment for hotelier Kanti Patel's planned San Marco Hotel bordered by San Marco and Grove Avenues and West Castillo Drive. An ordinance to rezone Riberia Pointe to create an 11 acre public park. Also ordinances for the creation of two public parks in the Lighthouse Park neighborhood and to create a city code designation of "Undeveloped Conservation Park Lands" to preserve lands from future development.
Second Reading Public hearing Two ordinances creating a Special Events Venue definition in the city code and a procedure for administrative determination of vested rights. Three ordinances to annex 4500 US 1 North and two for a Small Scale Comp Plan Amendment to the Madiera subdivision on the former Ponce de Leon Golf Course site.
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goes to commission
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 Consultants will present their final report to commissioners Monday on a Freight Loading Zone and Management Study funded by the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization. Collected data will include traffic counts, truck parking use and occupancy, truck routes use, surveys of needs of business owners, residents and delivery companies, and case studies. Findings will include that truck parking demand exceeds capacity today, and trucks circulate causing congestion and unneeded wear on pavements. Priority corridors include Cathedral Place and Orange, Charlotte and Spanish streets.
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Night in Havana
cancelled
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Home for the Holidays: A Night in Havana, scheduled for Saturday at the Renaissance at the World Golf Village, has been cancelled.
The event was to benefit four agencies in St. Johns County who work with the homeless population: Home Again St. Johns, St. Francis House, Wildflower Clinic and St. Johns Housing Partnership.
Another event will be planned in the coming year.
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Historic preservation wants input
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City Planning and Building staff and Historic Architectural Review Board have been developing a Historic Preservation Master Plan, and now seek public input in a short, each to complete on-line survey.
The 17 questions, some multiple choice and some short answer, allow the community to offer views on both current status and future plans for historic preservation in St. Augustine.
To access the survey, click here. The survey continues until January 15.
For a printable flyer including a link to the survey, click here. The ultimate goal, a well thought out, comprehensive guide for the future of historic preservation in the community.
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Grants for cultural efforts
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Ten community cultural grants through the St Johns Cultural Council State of the Arts Grants Program are being matched with $5,000 from Compassionate St. Augustine.
"The grant requests permit us to further our mission to provide cultural and artistic programming for children and families at risk," says Compassionate St. Augustine President and Co-Founder James Vande Berg.
The ten recipients of the 2015 Fall grants:
- Keys to Success Music Program for St. Luke's A.M.E. Church and Transitional Housing Program for Homeless Families
- Caren Goldman and "Compassion Through the Eyes of Children" Obelisk Art 450 Program
- Jean Rahner and Classic Theatre - "Sweet Emmaline: The Musical Journey Debby McDade"
- Murray Middle School Theatre program "The Lion King at St. Augustine Amphitheatre"
- St. Johns County 4H - "Keys for Clover" purchase of a keyboard
- Lynne Fascetti Mayhew and "Windows to Florida's Past" at Julington Creek Elementary School
- Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Florida - Art Enrichment Programs for At-Risk Children
- St. Augustine Ballet - "A Home for the Holidays" Program tickets for homeless students and families
- St. Augustine Montessori School and Morgan Kelly - "A Puppet Parade: The Story of Incan Culture"
- Nancy Christensen and St. Johns based Artists for After-School At-risk Children
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History's Highlight
In 1836 the Cathedral congregation asked the Bishop of Havana for help:
Since this unhappy population was ceded to the United States (1821), we have experienced nothing but mishaps and misfortunes.
 The severe and, in this climate, unheard of freezes of last winter utterly destroyed our luxuriant orange trees, whose fruit was the only means many of us had, besides our own labor, to support and educate our families with some comfort. Our church has shared in this general misfortune, for she has suffered the annual loss of some four hundred pesos, whose sum was almost the only income she had available to attend to her indispensable ministries and to liquidate, in part, the debts she had contracted for the repair of two houses in her possession.
And as the culmination of our unhappiness and ruin, we presently find ourselves under arms night and day, protecting our lives and homes against the savage Indians that have risen en masse against the government, burning and committing all kinds of attacks, plunderings, and murders in the countryside and even in the vicinity of this city, because of which the inhabitants have seen fit to abandon their estates to the fury of the savages and to save their lives by taking refuge in the towns.
These last two calamities have put an end to our hopes for future remedy.
Consequently we find ourselves, in our critical and indigent situation, compelled to seek, with all humility and respect, the protection of Your Excellency in order that, by means of your benevolent intercession and guidance, our brothers in religion of that diocese be asked to make a pecuniary, charitable contribution in order that our church building be properly repaired and decorated.
Our parish priest, Don Claudio Rampon, the bearer of this petition, has voluntarily offered to collect it, for which he has all power and authority to that effect.
Permit us, Your Excellency, being satisfied and hopeful of the success of this our humble and reverent petition, to pray to the Supreme Being to preserve Your Excellency's life for many years to come.
From The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, http://www.drbronsontours.com/bronsoncathedral.html
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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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