Guest Column: Lincolnville deserves better treatment from city

Guest Column: Lincolnville deserves better treatment from city

By Anthony Seraphin  
St. Augustine  
Posted: Sunday, December 2, 2007
Updated: 8:31 AM on Sunday, December 2, 2007

I want to thank the John Regan, chief of operations for St. Augustine, for meeting with myself and others on Nov. 13 about the illegal dumping and the heavy repercussions in West St. Augustine that followed.

I have been discussing this issue with residents of Lincolnville. The impact on Lincolnville is obvious from the growth in membership in our Neighborhood Association.

Let's remedy this breach of trust and confidence in our local government by the following. The true costs and there will be overruns, are already more than $1 million and growing.

We request:

1. City Commissioners and City Manager Bill Harriss to attend an open public hearing in Lincolnville to discuss the plans to bring 20,000 cubic yards of contaminants back into our neighborhood.

2. Publication of all documents and data on the illegal dumping on the city Web site for the public to see.

3. Independent epidemiological studies on the health of Lincolnville residents and possible health effects from the dumping and other pollution sources.

4. Alternative plans for the disposal of the contaminates.

5. Discussion on environmental racism stemming from the illegal dumping.

6. Public involvement to monitor the cleanup, including a fairly balanced advisory committee to oversee this major project that will impact Lincolnville the most, as well as the entire taxpaying public of the city.

7. Installing real-time Internet Web cams at the Holmes Boulevard and Lincolnville sites to assure full compliance and total quality management.

8. Global positioning systems in all trucks involved in the cleanup to monitor locations of said trucks to be viewed on Web site.

9. Reparations to Lincolnville neighborhood due to decades of illegal dumping.

10. The true costs of the cleanup, which is already more than $1 million, including the initial $200,000 spent on the illegal dumping, the $33,000-plus state fine, continuing legal and engineering fees and for sure the cost overruns on the cleanup.

While I was moved by his (Regan's) offer to put me in charge of a committee to build a park at the proposed dump site, I cannot accept this unauthorized offer, unless we meet the needs of the residents and protect their health.

If indeed we, as a neighborhood, can overcome the vast differences imposed arbitrarily on Lincolnville, I would be more than happy to assist in the reallocation of the $3.6 million made by the city on the sale of city property (Sebastian Inland Harbor) to design and build the park and sculpture garden you and I were so enthusiastic about.

If indeed Lincolnville is going to be dumped on again (as is the history of the city's dealings with our neighborhood for more than 140 years) and the state condones it, then a grand jury must investigate the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and irresponsible city officials.

Wrong doers must be indicted or at the least removed from office.

Otherwise, the largest voting segment in the city will not forget the gross treatment meted out by these officials on Lincolnville.

While we are on the subject of Lincolnville, I constantly hear about:

1. The inequality of city spending on Lincolnville vs. other neighborhoods.

2. Equalizing city spending, investments and employment opportunities.

3. No one in City Hall listens to or cares what happens to or in Lincolnville, other than at election time when the "glad-handing hypocrites come through."

4. Flagler College growing their business at the expense of the taxpayers.

5. Boarded-up speculators' shacks that attract drug dealers and derision from visitors.





Anthony Seraphin is a businessman who has lived in St. Augustine in Lincolnville for the past 2 years. He is a member of the Lincolnville Neighborhood Association.