Published by former Mayor George Gardner August 3 2016
The Report is an independent publication serving our community
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1st mobility workshop a success
You don't speak right now John. You listen.
Workshop Chair Melinda Rakoncay to City Manager John Regan
 City Manager John Regan called it one of the most successful neighborhood meetings he's ever attended. His comments came after more than three dozen North City residents batted around ideas at the first of five mobility workshops last Thursday at Christ Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church on Milton Street. In the observing audience, Mayor Nancy Shaver, Vice Mayor Roxanne Horvath and Commissioner Leanna Freeman.
Most pointed observation of North City by consultant Littlejohn Engineering, which divided the city into five sections for study, was "lack of identity."
Residents quickly listed sidewalks, tree canopy, low traffic and neighborliness to key North City as a historic residential neighborhood.
What needs work, all agreed, is the heavy flow of traffic along San Marco Avenue.
Their ideas and comments were recorded as will be those for workshops for the West Augustine area last night, Downtown tomorrow 7-8 pm at the Galimore Center, Flagler Model Land Association Thursday, August 11, 6-7:30 pm at Maple Street Biscuit Company on Cordova Street, and Anastasia Island Tuesday, August 16, 5:30-7 pm at R. B. Hunt School.
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The St. Augustine Garrison firing line fires a salute to fallen soldados Espanoles who fought and died in 1739-40 at the northern defenses of St. Augustine - Fort Picolata, Fort San Francisco de Pupo, Fort San Diego and Fort Mose.
In ceremonies Saturday at Fort Mose, wreaths were placed for each of the forts with the Spanish colonial flag.
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Management exec's
contract comments
As city commissioners continued to wrestle at their last meeting with Mayor Nancy Shaver's call for contract accountability from city mobility consultant Littlejohn Engineering, an Uptown Neighborhood resident and mobility task force member with more than 35 years' experience in management consulting says, "It is the responsibility of the consultants, not the client, to provide weekly, or at minimum bi-weekly, status updates in written format as to their progress of tasks and sub-tasks."
In a letter to commissioners Steven Carter writes, "The Mayor mentioned a red-yellow-green dashboard as an approach, and this is one I have seen used before quite effectively.
"It is the responsibility of the client (city management) to validate that dashboard and pass it along to the executive committee (in this case you) for review, or to summarize it and present it in a way that might be more meaningful for your discussion."
Read Carter's letter here.
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Consultant, task force, surveys, workshops and now speakers to drive the city mobility initiative.
The city has speakers lined up to meet with groups on what's being learned, possible actions that may address mobility challenges, and to hear ideas and possible solutions from the community.
Neighborhood and homeowner associations, professional and business organizations, civic clubs and church or other groups can request a speaker through Mobility Coordinator Xavier Pellicer, 904.209.4211 xpellicer@citystaug.com.
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 Ray Quinn, Vice Chairman of The Veterans Council of St. Johns County, awarded the Charles Maddox Award". by the Florida National Guard Association for "Extraordinary Lifetime Service to the Florida National Guard.  Michele Perry, St. Augustine Police commander, retiring after more than 25 years with the department. Commander Perry is daughter of the late Sheriff Neil Perry.
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No summer break
for historic board
The Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB) will have two meetings in August to handle a high volume of applications.
First up, August 18, will be demolition applications and discussion with the preservation master plan consultant. The balance of HARB applications will be heard August 23.
Both meetings start at 1 pm, in The Alcazar Room at City Hall and will be live and on demand at CoSA.TV.
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The St. Augustine & Ponte Vedra Beach Visitors & Convention Bureau is promoting the inaugural
Sounds of Summer Celebration August through September, with Sing Out Loud as the feature event.
"There are more than 100 things to do during Sounds of Summer," says the bureau. "The Sing Out Loud Festival, presented by Community First Credit Union, is a celebration of music featuring free concerts by Brandi Carlile, The Indigo Girls, Booker T. Jones, The Travelin' McCourys and more than 130 additional local and national acts - 150 hours of music, spanning three weekends August 26 through September 11."
Concert locations include downtown St. Augustine, St Augustine Beach, St. Augustine Amphitheatre, Ponte Vedra Beach and more. Complete schedule and information at www.singoutloudfestival.com.
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History's Highlight
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Pages from a Menorcan Diary
From Floridanos, Menorcans, Cattle-Whip Crackers - Poetry of St. Augustine, by Ann Browning Masters 2015 The Florida Historical Society Press.
A St. Ambrose Fair without Pilau
 March 2004 - When pilau went away from the St. Ambrose Fair, we were shocked. No tender rice browned with a tomato roux that took an hour to cook down; no marriage of bell peppers and onion, bay leaf, and thyme. Where else would we find our poor man's paella? It won't be the same, I groused as a city Menorcan. I didn't spend a week chopping and cooking for the first part of humble, magical pilau. I wouldn't be locked in the church hall kitchen the day before the Fair. And I surely would not show up by dawn on Fair Day to complete the noon meal.
It will work out, a country Menorcan told me. We are too old to keep this up and no one else wants the job. Our grandchildren in another city don't even bother to come home for the Fair any more. There's new blood that wants to fry fish dinners. It will work out.
We survived the first Fair without pilau, but not without all parties weighing in on a riceless meal. The Menorcan clam chowder took up the slack for some. We moved under the canopy of live oaks as we had for over a hundred years, catching up, admonishing children, thankful for a spring day that would open the heart of Scrooge.
March 2005 - Pilau returned to the St. Ambrose Fair. Our world was right.
You Want Mullet?
The cry "Mullet on the beach!" was a marching order that usually came in June. It meant that a dark, wide, trembling streak of a school of mullet was moving like a demonic oil slick off-shore. If any man had thoughts of fresh fried mullet or enough smoked mullet for family and neighborhood, this was the time to hit the beach.
Two old stories exist that show the potency of this phrase. In the first, a local baseball game being played at Francis Field was interrupted by a man shouting "Mullet on the beach!" The game immediately ended with players scrambling to go home for their mullet nets.
In the second, the Cathedral door was opened and the phrase was shouted during a Mass. This, of course, left mostly women, and children firmly clasped by women, to finish the service.
Dr. Ann Browning Masters, a St. Augustine native and 12th generation Floridian, is a retired faculty member of St. Johns River State College and was knighted by the Easter Festival Committee of St. Augustine for her dedication in promoting St. Augustine's Spanish heritage.
Floridanos, Menorcans, Cattle-Whip Crackers - Poetry of St. Augustine is available at the St. Augustine Historical Society, the Visitor Information Center and other local locations, online at Amazon, and through The Florida Historical Society Press.
Image: Pans of pilau ready for St. Ambrose Fair, held in the Spring and Fall.
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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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