Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About St. Augustine National Historical Park and Seashore

1. Will this park legislation violate private property rights?

No. The draft legislation provides for donations of government lands and donations or sales from willing sellers. Condemnation lawsuits are authorized only to “preserve [historic buildings and land] from destruction.”

2. How would the park affect local businesses, tourist attractions and churches?

Very positively. Historic and environmental tourists spend more and stay longer, studies show. This will create more good-paying jobs, in the Park Service, kayaking, tour guide companies, restaurants, hotels and guest houses. There’s a list of tourist attractions and places of worship in the legislation that the National Park Service would be authorized to assist with historic interpretation. It includes the churches where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Andrew Young spoke, working with local residents to create our 1964 Civil Rights Act.

3. Will this legislation take over the government of the City of St. Augustine?

No. But St. Augustine can donate a few parks to the cause. Our city needs help and cannot handle the 450^th celebration alone. A greater National Park Service presence here will help better guide and orient millions of visitors. The park will help make our city a better place – just ask the residents of Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras.

4. What positive changes will creation of a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore make?

A. Increase property values and local tax collections. Property values increase near National Parks and Seashores. Bed tax and sales tax receipts will increase.

B. Grow our economy. Our local economy is stagnant. NPS will help get us out of the ditch.

C. Reduce spending by our state, local and water management district government.

D. Increase the quality of marketing -- greatly simplified by combining all this land into one National Park.

E. Improve the quality of historic and environmental interpretation, preservation and protection. Right now, tourists learn very little about our African-American and Civil Rights history, for example, or the heroic history of the Minorcans and other immigrants to our shores, or the endangered species that make this area a paradise. NPS is experienced at protecting nature and interpreting history while stimulating tourism. A National Civil Rights museum here in St. Augustine will attract more school groups and minority tourists – Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is known world-wide and his legacy here will attract tourists.

5. Why take county beaches? NPS is experienced at managing seashores and will invest more in beach preservation and renourishment if NPS owns the land. Nothing can beat the “National Seashore” and “National Park Service” brands. County beach employees will be eligible for federal jobs, benefits and retirement.

6. How will this affect historic re-enactors? Good jobs await them at the National Park Service.

7. Is this legislation family-friendly? Yes. Residents and tourists will thank you for creating a wholesome place to take children where they learn about history and our environment, with a classroom that is as big as all outdoors, embracing 11,000 years of human history on these shores.

8. How will this affect beach driving? The legislation does not address it, either way. Elsewhere, as in Cape Cod, residents are licensed to drive on NPS beaches after proper training and could take tourists on beach tours.

9. Is there a potential downside? One. Proper transportation planning is required to avoid congestion. The draft bill requires a plan for “cost-effective, sustainable, carbon-neutral, environmentally-friendly means of transporting visitors and residents to and through the park’s locations, using trolley cars resembling those in use in St. Augustine, Florida in 1928, with the goal of reducing hydrocarbon consumption, traffic congestion, air pollution and damage to historic structures.”

10. When was the National Park idea first proposed? Some seventy (70) years ago, before World War II.

11. What are we waiting for? You tell me!

12. What do you want the Legislature to do? Authorize transfer of lands to the National Park Service, paving the way for Congressional action in the 112^th Congress, in time for the celebrations starting in 2013.

13. What will this cost the state, county and local governments? Nothing. It saves us millions of dollars annually.

14. How do we learn more? Please see www.staugustgreen.com.

St. Augustine National Historical Park & Seashore Will Help Protect Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales' Winter Calving Habitat

The North Atlantic Right Whale spends winters in our area, calving (giving birth to their young).

There are less than 350 North Atlantic Right Whales left.

What do you reckon?

St. Augustine Record quotes Commissioner Erroll Jones' reference to "our national park" - and we're going to get one right here in St. Augustine!

IN HAEC VERBA: "We need to look at the opportunity of using federal dollars to improve our national park. (The government) is going to spend the money, if not here then somewhere else," Jones said.

Bayfront upgrade plan chosen

Cost not yet calculated for years-long project

Posted: February 20, 2011 - 12:54am

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An artist's drawing shows what Avenida Menendez will look like under the plan being considered by the St. Augustine City Commission. Halback Design Group, Inc.

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An artist's drawing shows the proposed traffic patterns near the Castillo. Halback Design Group, Inc.

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Current traffic patterns on Avenida Menendez are shown. By PETER WILLOTT, The Associated Press

By PETER GUINTA

Trying to walk a family across four busy lanes of traffic on the way to the Castillo de San Marcos can sometimes feel like participating in a live game of "Frogger."

One wrong jump and one of the froggies gets squished by a car.

The St. Augustine City Commission last week tentatively supported a plan that could change traffic and pedestrian patterns and improve the appearance of the Bayfront from the Bridge of Lions to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument.

The cost of this potentially multi-year, multi-phased project has not yet been determined.

But it will be in the millions and the city hopes the federal government will pick up the check.

So far, the city has chosen one proposed design -- Option 12A -- from a dozen options prepared by Halback Design Group of St. Augustine.

Jeremy Marquis of the Halback Group said a relatively obscure federal grant, called the Paul S. Sarbanes Transit-in-Parks Grant Program, would pay 100 percent of the project cost if the city gets it.

Not even the designers know the total cost for Option 12A, but one city official estimated $10 million.

The best part for the city: No matching funds would be required.

"The Sarbanes grant is designed specifically to improve access for national parks, and often the grant recipient is a national park," Marquis said.

The commission's next public hearing on the project is March 28.

At that time, the Halback Group will offer cost estimates and recommendations to the board.

Commissioners may then decide whether to seek the grant or not.

Marquis said, "The entire national budget for these grants is about $28 million a year. So comparatively, (ours) would be a relatively small amount."

The benefits

Marquis cautioned, "Any road construction would be years away. There's a lot that can be done without touching the road. Even if the grant is approved, the city could say, 'We don't want it.' In any case, we won't get an answer before December."

Regan said many cities such as Seattle have begun revitalizing their waterfront property.

"St. Augustine is a great waterfront city," Regan said. "But psychologically, the national monument and the seawall are a bit disconnected from the city by traffic."

Approximately 17,000 vehicles per day travel State Road A1A through downtown.

The commission members felt, for the most part, that Option 12A best fit the city's needs.

That option would mean:

* Installing a four-foot-wide median strip in Avenida Menendez, removing the palm trees there now.

* Widening the current five-foot sidewalks to 12 or 13 feet on both sides of Avenida Menendez.

* Creating an eight-foot-wide dedicated horse carriage pathway going south.

* Striped bicycle lanes on both sides of the road.

* Removal of 34 parking spaces on the east side of Avenida Menendez.

* Eliminating the left turn from Orange Street onto Avenida Menendez.

* Less parking on the west side of Avenida Menendez.

* Dropping one of two northbound lanes from the Castillo parking lot to West Castillo Drive.

* Eliminating the left turn onto Hypolita Street from northbound Avenida Menendez.

The dilemma

The City Commission's Option 12A is, according to Commissioner Bill Leary, the most expensive alternative.

The decision whether to approve one option or another has to do with future traffic and parking needs in the city, he said.

"Is this a priority to the citizens of St. Augustine?" Leary said. "I see a lot of downsides to this alternative. I don't see it helping our tourists cross the Bayfront to downtown."

Leary said traffic lanes through downtown are confusing and removing carriages from Avenida Menendez could mean faster traffic there. In addition, some Bayfront businesses don't like removing parking from the east side of the road, he said.

The city's decision on whether or not to apply for the grant must be made by mid-April at the latest.

Regan said no match money is required to apply for the grant, but added that if match money is offered, the application would be given more "points" and thus stand a better chance of approval than competing applications.

Mayor Joe Boles said it won't hurt for the city to see how the application process fares.

"When there's money out there, you have to take a look," Boles said. "(This option) is the best one I've seen so far. If we do nothing, we have not addressed the main problem, and that is the separation of the monument from the community by four lanes of traffic that's hard to get across."

The vote

Commissioner Errol Jones said the Castillo's five million tourists a year make that attraction the city's "national jewel" that should be cherished.

"We need to look at the opportunity of using federal dollars to improve our national park. (The government) is going to spend the money, if not here then somewhere else," Jones said.

He made a motion to approve Option 12A, saying that if specific details need to be changed, "We can tweak it down the road."

Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline said that, even with this approval, the board is still a long way from accepting the grant.

"This project is to improve safety and efficiency of pedestrian traffic and make (the Castillo) a positive experience for our residents. These are things we can work out as we go along," she said.

Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman didn't think the northbound traffic lanes needed to be changed.

"I've never been backed up in traffic going north," Freeman said. "I'm still asking, 'What's broken?'"

The vote was 4-1 to approve, with Leary dissenting.

He said, "This is not a good decision. There are small things we can do to make the Bayfront better and more beautiful. I'm worried about the cost exposure to the city."

ST AUGUSTINE UNDERGROUND: St. Augustine’s History is A National treasure -- Time for a St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and & Parkway

From the January 1, 2011 issue of St. Augustine Underground (published by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which also publishes the Ponte Vedra Recorder and Clay Today):

St. Augustine’s History is A National treasure -- The time has come to bring out the big guns and protect our nationally important local heritage with the
creation of The St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Coastal Parkway.

By Ed Slavin

A famous journalism professor said
that “if you’re going to tell a
story about a bear, bring on the
bear.”
Here’s how to protect St. Johns
County’s bears – and other endangered
and threatened species – while growing
our economy and making life better for
your grandchildren (and their grandchildren).
2011 is critical to reviving our local
economy, creating jobs and preserving
our city’s and our county’s environment
and history.
How do we revive our depressed local
tourist economy? How do we get “out
of the ditch,” which Wall Street and
local speculators created?
By persuading Congress to enact a
St. Augustine National Historical Park,
Seashore and Coastal Parkway.
Let’s donate 13 large tracts: the
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection’s Guana Tolomato Matanzas
National Estuarine Research Reserve,
Anastasia State Park, Faver-Dykes
State Park and Fort Mosé State Park;
Florida Department of Agriculture’s
Deep Creek State Forest and Watson
Island State Forest; St. Johns County
beaches and the Nocatee Preserve; and
St. Johns River Water Management
District ‘s Twelve Mile Swamp, Deep
Creek, Matanzas Marsh, Moses Creek
and Stokes Landing preserves.
Let’s donate them to the federal government
for the St. Augustine National
Historical Park and Seashore. These
vast tracts of government-owned land
are suitable for a National Park and
Seashore – more than 120,000 acres.
In Woodie Guthrie’s words, “This land
is our land” already – it is our county
beaches, state parks and forests and
water management district land. Combined
with the Castillo de San Marcos
and Fort Matanzas, this land will make
one glorious National Park and Seashore,
making us all proud and properly
celebrating St. Augustine’s 450th
birthday (2015) and Spanish Florida’s
500th (2013).
Donating the land can save more than
$33 million over 10 years for state and
local governments; revive our economy;
create better-paying jobs with real
futures; protect our historic and environmental
heritage; teach our children
about history, beauty and nature; better
preserve our beaches; protect homes
from erosion; raise our property values;
and protect wildlife.
Let’s put people to work and draw
environmental and historic tourists,
who National Trust for Historic Preservation
and other studies say spend
more and visit longer, putting more
proverbial “heads in beds.” How? By
empowering our National Park Service
– America’s favorite federal agency. Ken
Burns’ PBS documentary rightly called
our National Parks “America’s Best
Idea.” We need one here.
Let’s teach history and nature to
future generations with a National Civil
Rights museum here in St. Augustine
and by celebrating all our history
-- 11,000 years of indigenous Native
American, African-American, Spanish,
Minorcan, French, English, Civil War,
Roman Catholic, Greek, Jewish, Protestant,
nautical, military, Flagler-era and
Civil Rights history.
Let’s preserve our endangered and
threatened species -- including right
whales (only 350 left, reportedly the
most endangered whales on the planet)
-- as well as turtles, bears, bald eagles,
manatees, beach mice and butterflies.
This Park and Seashore will rival Cape
Cod National Seashore, the Everglades,
Philadelphia and other tourist “hot
spots,” giving teachers and parents
tools to teach children lessons that will
keep them coming back for life.
Our state’s economy has suffered so
much since the Deepwater Horizon
disaster. We look to British Petroleum
to pay for it all as part of its economic
and environmental remediation to the
State of Florida.
The first step is for our governor and
legislature to agree to donate this land
to the federal government for one “public
park or pleasuring ground for the
benefit and enjoyment of the people,”
as Congress said in 1872 in creating
Yellowstone National Park.
Here are some frequently asked questions:
1. Will this park legislation violate
private property rights? No. The draft
legislation provides for donations of
government lands and donations or
sales from willing sellers. Condemnation
lawsuits are authorized only to
“preserve [historic buildings and land]
from destruction.”
2. How would the park affect local
businesses, tourist attractions and
churches? Very positively. Historic and
environmental tourists spend more and
stay longer, studies show. This will create
more good-paying jobs, in the Park
Service, kayaking, tour-guide
companies, restaurants, hotels
and guest houses. There’s
a list of tourist attractions
and places of worship in the
legislation that the National
Park Service could assist with
historic interpretation. It
includes churches where Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev.
Andrew Young spoke, working with
local residents to create our 1964 Civil
Rights Act.
3. Will this legislation take over the
government of the City of St. Augustine?
No. But St. Augustine can donate
a few parks to the cause. Our city needs
help and cannot handle the 450th celebration
alone. A greater National Park
Service presence here will help better
guide and orient millions of visitors.
The Park will help make our city a
better place – just ask the residents of
Cape Cod and Cape Hatteras.
4. What positive changes will creation
of a St. Augustine National Park and
Seashore make?
A. Increase property values and local
tax collections. Property values
increase near National Parks and Seashores.
Bed tax and sales tax receipts
will increase.
B. Grow our economy. Our local
economy is stagnant. The National
Park Service will help get us out of the
ditch.
C. Reduce spending by our state, local
and water management district government
– savings of $33 million over ten
years.
D. Increase the quality of tourism
marketing -- greatly simplified by combining
all this land into one National
Park.
E. Improve the quality of historic and
environmental interpretation, preservation
and protection. Right now, tourists
learn very little about our African-
American and Civil Rights history, for
example, or the heroic history of the
Minorcans and other immigrants to our
shores, or the endangered species that
make this area a paradise. The National
Park Service is experienced at protecting
nature and interpreting history
while stimulating tourism. A National
Civil Rights museum here in St. Augustine
will attract more school groups
and minority tourists – Rev. Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. is known world-wide
and his legacy here will attract tourists.
5. How will this affect historic reenactors?
Good jobs await them at the
National Park Service.
6. Is this legislation family-friendly?
Yes. Residents and tourists will thank
you for creating a wholesome place to
take children where they learn about
history and our environment, with a
classroom that is as big as all outdoors,
embracing 11,000 years of human history
on these shores.
7. How will this affect beach driving?
The legislation does not address
it, either way. Elsewhere, as in Cape
Cod, residents are licensed to drive on
National Park Service beaches after
proper training and can take tourists on
beach tours.
8. Is there a potential downside?
One. Proper transportation planning
is required to avoid congestion. The
draft bill requires a plan for “cost-effective,
sustainable, carbon-neutral,
environmentally-friendly means of
transporting visitors and residents to
and through the park’s locations, using
trolley cars resembling those in use in
St. Augustine, Florida, in 1928, with
the goal of reducing hydrocarbon consumption,
traffic congestion, air pollution
and damage to historic structures.”
9. When was the National Park idea
first proposed? Some 70 years ago,
before World War II.
10. What are we waiting for? You tell
me!
Will you please help us celebrate
11,000 years of history and protect
what deserves protecting forever inviolate?
Will you please share your suggestions
about how to improve the first
draft of the legislation? Let us work together
to accomplish something we can
all be proud of for future generations
yet unborn who will say, “thank you.”
Please see www.staugustgreen.com

St. Augustine activist Ed Slavin
(B.S.F.S., Georgetown University, J.D.
Memphis State University) first proposed
the St. Augustine National Park and
Seashore Nov. 13, 2006.

"SAVING ST. AUGUSTINE" -- FOLIO WEEKLY BACKPAGE EDITORIAL BY FAYE ARMITAGE

St. Augustine’s small-town Spanish Colonial charm is in
danger of being ruined by schlock. We love St. Augustine
and must preserve the beauty of endangered Matanzas Inlet
sunsets, Anastasia Island beach mice, nesting leatherback
turtles, soaring families of bald eagles and frolicking schools
of manatees and whales. Florida’s First Coast deserves a first
class National Park for the 500th anniversary of Spanish
Florida (in 2013) and 450th anniversary of St. Augustine
(in 2015).
The late U.S. Speaker of the House
Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill and Edward
Boland of Massachusetts made history in
1958, courageously working to protect
Cape Cod’s charm forever. Boland returned
in 1958 from a trip to Cape Hatteras
National Seashore. Within a fortnight, the
two Massachusetts Democrats introduced
the Cape Cod National Seashore Act
(backed by John F. Kennedy only after he
became president).
Commercial interests thought that a
national seashore would be bad for business.
They were wrong. Today we scoff at
the quaint story of O’Neill and Boland
being hung in effigy and booed in the Cape
Cod towns of Wellfleet and Truro, where
citizens, in their annual town meetings,
voted against the bill.
Even JFK, the Pulitzer Prize-winning
author of “Profiles in Courage,” feared local
commercial interests in Massachusetts
when it came to proposing a national
seashore. JFK later came aboard as president,
to consider the National Seashore the
best thing he ever did for Massachusetts.
Today’s visitors to Cape Cod come from
around the world to partake of its charm,
marshes, woodlands, beaches and towns
that were saved thanks to the vision of
Congressmen O’Neill and Boland.
A St. Augustine National Park was first
proposed before World War II. The idea is
five years older than President Harry S Truman’s
national health insurance proposal.
And as with national health care, Congress
too often resembles a herd of turtles trying
to write a symphony. It’s somewhat understandable
that our two busy U.S. Senators
(and Representative John Luigi Mica)
haven’t introduced a National Historical
Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway.
Legislation moves glacially, except in emergencies.
We have one now.
Our local economy is in a state of emergency.
Businesses are dying. We’re ready for
Congress to stimulate our economy and
preserve our way of life by enacting a St.
Augustine National Historical Park,
Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act,
supported by a diverse group of citizens,
from octogenarian environmental activist
Robin Nadeau to former Republican
County Commission Chairperson John
Sundeman to St. Augustine Democratic
Club Chairperson Jeanne Moeller, among a
growing group of people concerned about
the declining quality of the tourist experience
in St. Johns County.
A National Historical Park would preserve
and protect St. Augustine’s historic
downtown with the dignity and experience
of the National Park Service, just as parts of
Boston, New Bedford, Philadelphia and
other historic cities are preserved. It would
step into the breach left by the Florida legislature,
Secretary of State, University of
Florida and city of St. Augustine, all of
whom have been unable to repair crumbling
buildings and historic monuments. A
national historical park would preserve
downtown streets and reduce congestion,
improving the tourist experience and making
it one that longer-staying (and biggerspending)
historic and environmental
tourists will enjoy.
A national historic park managed by the
National Park Service would portray history
and nature accurately, as done in Virginia’s
Colonial Williamsburg and the
Colonial National Historical Parkway.
There could also be a National Civil Rights
and Indigenous History Museum, aimed at
telling the region’s story of 11,000 years of
human history, honoring Native Americans,
African-Americans and the Civil
Rights movement here, which helped win
adoption of national antidiscrimination
laws in 1964. The struggles on St. Augustine’s
streets and beaches, including the
arrest of Massachusetts Governor Endicott
Peabody’s mother and Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., need to be retold and told well.
soldiers monument in St. Augustine’s Plaza
de la Constitucion, paying tribute to Civil
Rights Era activists whose efforts helped
break the Senate logjam and enact basic
nondiscrimination laws.
A national seashore and coastal parkway
designation would protect the coast from
uglification, as at other national seashores.
We have 61 miles of coast here, and the
transfer from county to federal jurisdiction
would save local tax monies and make environmental
protection a priority on beaches
where turtles land to give birth, and where
beach mice and other critters scamper.
In September, watch Ken Burns’ PBS
documentary “Our National Parks: America’s
Best Idea.” Think of how uplifting it
will be to be able to drive from Ponte Vedra
to Marineland as a tourist or resident,
secure in the knowledge that the beaches
will survive and not be turned into some
unreasonable facsimile of Miami.
Think of the economic efficiency and
environmental benefits of entrusting city
and county parks, seashore water management
district land and at least five state
parks (including Anastasia and Guana-
Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine
Reserve) to one world-class organization
(the National Park Service) to protect, preserve
and interpret, rather than allowing
the land to be ripped apart by greed.
Think of the good jobs that will encourage
young people to stay here, working as
National Park Service employees and contractors.
Think of historic interpreters and
environmental tour guides who are
rewarded with a federal showcase, inviting
the world to a world-class destination.
Let’s enlist Congress and the president
to help us tell our region’s rich history —
including the story of the Indians, African-
American slaves and Minorcan and Greek
indentured servants (who escaped to St.
Augustine from New Smyrna Beach, “voting
with their feet” against slavery by contract.
Indentured servitude was outlawed
along with regular slavery with the 13th
Amendment in 1865.
Think of how our tourist economy will
be stimulated and jobs created and preserved
by preserving the stunning vistas
that draw people here, not uglifying them
with massive high-rises, suburban sprawl
and unsafe homes built in wetlands.
Think of how fourth-graders now and
in the future, from all over Florida, will be
rewarded for their studies of Florida history
by helping preserve “the real Florida” — St.
Augustine and St. Johns County — forever.
It is up to us to learn from the young
and to protect Northeast Florida for families,
flora, fauna and the future. Visit
staugustgreen.com for more information
and let your neighbors and national and
local leaders know what you think. 

Faye Armitage lives in Fruit Cove. In 2008,
she ran against nine-term Congressional
incumbent John Mica, receiving nearly 150,000 votes.

St. Augustine Record Letter: Residents should support estuary renewal

By Davron King Cardenas

Editor: Thank you for Sunday's lead story that shows the public what is happening to the Matanzas Inlet watershed in south St. Johns County. We are watching the not-so-slow death of a large estuarine ecosystem as a cascading result of a simple wash over of the Atlantic Ocean into the Summer Haven River during Tropical Storm Fay in August of 2008.

All prior washovers have plugged themselves fairly quickly, but Fay was followed by five weeks of northeasters that cut a real breach into the river and began loading the River with beach sand. A Summer Haven resident offered at his own expense to bring equipment to return the sand to the beach and plug the breach. The Department of Environmental Protection refused to allow this emergency action without first undertaking studies of the situation. To my knowledge, those studies have still not been done.

Now, with the Summer Haven River completely blocked, the Matanzas Inlet dramatically shrunken and water flow significantly reduced, with stagnant waters in the flats and up Pellicer Creek, and with salt-dependent plant, fish, and shellfish species dying and disappearing, the DEP feels that this isn't their problem.

The costs of the loss of this ecosystem to the public are incalculable, but it's a safe bet they will be huge!

The St. Augustine Port Authority is seeking to address this mounting disaster by starting the permitting process to reopen the Summer Haven River in hopes that the Matanzas Inlet will reopen naturally if the incoming tides have room to spread out again. Residents of St Johns and Flagler counties should support this effort to restore the Matanzas estuary.

Davron King Cardenas

Jacksonville

St. Augustine Record Letter: Beach's Beauty is Disappearing

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By ANNE M. O. GELORAN

Editor: I've been a resident of St. Augustine Beach since July 2010. My husband and I walk the beach daily. On these walks, I always collect trash left on the beach or whatever the ocean leaves at the shore. On Sunday, Feb. 27, I was appalled at the condition of our beach. Some person(s) thought making donuts in the sand with their vehicle would be fun and left such huge ruts in the sand it was impossible to walk in that area. Someone else went horseback riding on the beach leaving manure by the shore to be washed away by the ocean when high tide occurred. Others do not pick up after their dogs, children, or themselves. I cannot begin to tell you how much garbage (plastic bottles, toys, candy wrappers, beer cans, soda cans, etc) I picked up while walking Sunday. Our beach looked like a city dump. On Feb. 28, the trash was no better. We also witnessed someone riding a motorcycle on the beach where people were wading, walking, and sunbathing.

I realize tourism is important, however, people do not have the "right" to ruin our environment. Not only is St. Augustine Beach our home, it is also the home of a diversified number of wildlife. It's a shame people have no respect for laws, rules, or anything anymore.

If we don't have the resources to properly police our beaches in the off season, maybe we should consider either charging to drive on the beach year round or close the beach to vehicles during the off-season months.

When we moved here, we thought what a beautiful friendly place this is. It is still a very friendly city with lovely residents, but the beauty is going to disappear if we don't take action soon and protect our beach.

Anne M. O. Geloran

St. Augustine Beach

USDOJ Press Release: Gainesville Businessman Pleads Guilty to Bribing Republican State Appointee to Get Florida Prisons' Commissary Business

For Immediate Release March 2, 2011	United States Attorney's Office Middle District of Florida Contact: (904) 301-6300
Gainesville Businessman Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Pay Kickbacks to Former Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, James Vernon Crosby, Jr. JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announces that Edward Lee Dugger (64, Gainesville, Florida) today pleaded guilty to conspiracy to pay kickbacks to the former Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections, James Vernon Crosby, Jr., and another former high-ranking FDOC official, Allen Wayne Clark. According to the plea agreement, Dugger faces up to 39 months in federal prison for the conspiracy charge. Sentencing is scheduled for July 27, 2011. According to the plea agreement and other Court documents, Crosby, the Secretary of the Florida Department of Corrections from January 2003 to February 2006, and Clark, another former high-ranking FDOC official, who resigned from the FDOC in August 2005, assisted Dugger and Dugger's business associate, Joseph Arthur Deese, with obtaining a contract with Keefe Commissary Network ("Keefe Commissary"), a St. Louis, Missouri corporation, to run the canteen grocery stores inside the visiting parks of all prisons within the state of Florida prison system. These canteen stores are located within the Florida prisons and are stocked with foodstuffs and other items that visitors could purchase while visiting inmates during prison visiting hours. FDOC made millions of dollars each year from the sale of such items to inmates and inmate visitors. In 2003, FDOC negotiated a contract to privatize FDOC's institutional canteens with Keefe Commissary, giving Keefe Commissary the right to run both the inmate canteens inside the prisons and the visiting park canteens open to visitors, also situated inside the prisons. As part of this contract, Keefe Commissary agreed to pay FDOC a certain fee per day per inmate, which was anticipated to provide FDOC in excess of $20 million per year in revenues. As Secretary of FDOC, Crosby had the direct authority to enter into the contract, to implement contractual amendments with Keefe Commissary and to renew the contract with Keefe Commissary. Crosby also had to approve the use of any subcontractors. In June 2004, former Secretary Crosby and Allen Clark introduced Dugger and Deese to representatives of Keefe Commissary for the purpose of encouraging Keefe Commissary to utilize Dugger and Deese with opening and operating visiting park canteens throughout the prisons in Florida. Crosby, Clark and Dugger had decided that if, based upon the recommendation and support of Crosby and Clark, Keefe Commissary utilized Dugger as a subcontractor on the Keefe Commissary contract, then Dugger and Deese would kickback to Crosby and Clark a portion of the proceeds made by Dugger and Deese. Once representatives of Keefe Commissary were introduced to Dugger at various meetings involving the prison canteen business, Dugger understood this to be a multimillion dollar industry and that Dugger and Deese's corporation, American Institutional Service ("AIS"), could expect to make approximately $1.5 million each year. Dugger and Deese, via AIS, ran this business involving the visiting park canteens and collected and handled the cash proceeds generated by Keefe Commissary's sales of foodstuffs and other items at FDOC visiting park canteens. In exchange for this introduction and ultimately procuring the contract, Dugger agreed to kickback to Crosby and Clark a certain percentage of the proceeds AIS made from the subcontract with Keefe Commissary and FDOC. According to Court documents, the full amount of the kickbacks, which were paid over several months spanning 2004 until early 2006, was approximately $130,000.00. The kickbacks were paid monthly and gradually increased over time from approximately $1,000.00 per month up to as much as $14,000.00 per month. Once AIS employees collected the cash generated from the sale of the foodstuffs and other items in the FDOC visiting park canteens within the prisons on a weekly basis, the cash was returned to AIS in Gainesville, Florida. Dugger and Deese withheld certain amounts of cash, out of which Deese delivered the kickback payments to Clark, who in turn, delivered the kickback payments to Crosby. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Tysen Duva.

In Haec Verba: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Quote (From Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C)

WE'RE CELEBRATING ANOTHER PROGRESSIVE VICTORY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, DIVERSITY AND DEMOCRACY IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA, OUR NATION’S OLDEST CITY

Riberia Street (courtesy of City of St. Augustine, Florida)



Photo credit: Marie Bermudez-Phillip

“Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last.”

(“Negro spiritual,” oft-quoted by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)

The government of our City of St. Augustine, Florida was for too long under the domination of the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society and allied racists and right-wingers.

Our Nation's Oldest City continued Jim Crow long past the point when it was illegal. The once-controlling political faction used (and still uses) hate websites to target dissenters. They hounded artists and entertainers off St. George Street, adopting harsh, repressive, illegal laws, purporting to create misdemeanors, in violation of America’s and Florida’s Constitutions.

But as Bob Dylan said, “the times, they are a-changin’.”

Our City of St. Augustine now has wise leaders who respect diversity and civil rights.

This was demonstrated to all who watched on Monday night, February 28, 2011, when our City Commissioners voted unanimously to fix Riberia Street, in the historic African-American community of Lincolnville. About half of the $18 million bond issue will fix up Riberia Street.

Riberia Street is the worst street in St. Johns County, Florida and a national disgrace. Originally a dirt road, Riberia Street is the main artery going into and out of the historic African-American community of Lincolnville. Riberia Street has never had proper drainage or paving. Riberia Street is a stench in the nostrils of the Nation and a symbol of the Environmental Racism that has long haunted our Nation’s Oldest City, the State of Florida and the United States of America.

As I told St. Augustine City Commissioners Monday night, “Here we right a wrong.” (Quoting the monument in Washington, D.C. to the Japanese-Americans wrongfully interned during World War II).

Local St. Augustine activists threatened civil rights lawsuits (and possible criminal prosecution) against the City of St. Augustine, Florida for its longstanding violations of African-Americans’ right to equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The very first time I attended a City of St. Augustine City Commission meeting, on April 11, 2005, I spoke of inequality and civil rights violations, focusing on the City's illegal pattern of annexations of only all-white areas on instructions of developers, while refusing to annex West Augustine, an African-American community.

Controversial, then-City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS assaulted me after the meeting, sticking his finger in my space. He threatened me, stating “I could have your arrested for disorderly conduct,” e.g., for criticizing rampant civil rights violations by the City of St. Augustine, including violations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

I do not cower to power.

Undeterred, I have continued attending City meetings for nearly six years.

So have other concerned citizens.

As our Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said, “it takes a village.”

Good and decent people united, elected three new City Commissioners, attended meetings, lobbied, asked questions, and ran City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS off. He "retired," after becoming increasingly irrational and irascible.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

As Anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

WILLIAM B. HARRISS' mentor, former City Manager WILLIAM POMAR “joked” in 1998 -- to a sitting City Commissioner -- about how he would like to take twelve bulldozers and destroy the African-American community of Lincolnville.

This is the sort of redneck peckerwood (pardon my redundancy) that KKK and John Birch Society members wanted in charge of our City of St. Augustine.

These are the sort of unjust stewards that once ran our City government, until less than one year ago.

They have now been replaced, thanks to citizens’ exercise of our God-given rights to free speech, freedom of association and equal protection under law.

Check out our City’s Coat of Arms below, and kindly notice the words in bold below, which amply describe what our City and its residents showed --- and what our Nation’s Oldest City has as its potential --- as shown by nearly five decades of activism and ending in the vote on February 28, 2011: “faith, wisdom, and valor…. loyalty and splendor…. defense and safety… fortitude and creative power. .. in the fighting position … majesty and kingship…. strength, courage, and generosity…. nobility and serenity.”

As President Bill Clinton said in his First Inaugural Address, Americans “force the Spring” when we elect wise leaders. Those words were written by a Jesuit University President, Fr. Timothy S. Healy, S.J. (1923-1992), longtime President of Georgetown University (Clinton’s alma mater and mine). Fr. Healy was later the President of the New York Public Library. Fr. Healy reportedly had the draft Inaugural Address in his carryon bag when he dropped dead of a massive heart attack, changing planes at Newark Airport on December 30, 1992.

As President Clinton said in that moving Inaugural Address:

Today we celebrate the mystery of American renewal. This ceremony is held in the depth of winter, but by the words we speak and the faces we show the world, we force the spring. A spring reborn in the world's oldest democracy that brings forth the vision and courage to reinvent America….. The American people have summoned the change we celebrate today. You have raised your voices in an unmistakable chorus, you have cast your votes in historic numbers, and you have changed the face of Congress, the Presidency and the political process itself. Yes, you, my fellow Americans, have forced the spring.

Now we must do the work the season demands. To that work I now turn with all the authority of my office. I ask the Congress to join with me. But no President, no Congress, no government can undertake this mission alone. My fellow Americans, you, too, must play your part in our renewal.

The Trumpets' Call

I challenge a new generation of young Americans to a season of service; to act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with those in need, reconnecting our torn communities. There is so much to be done. Enough, indeed, for millions of others who are still young in spirit to give of themselves in service, too.

In serving, we recognize a simple but powerful truth: We need each other and we must care for one another. Today we do more than celebrate America, we rededicate ourselves to the very idea of America: An idea born in revolution and renewed through two centuries of challenge; an idea tempered by the knowledge that but for fate we, the fortunate and the unfortunate, might have been each other; an idea ennobled by the faith that our nation can summon from its myriad diversity the deepest measure of unity; an idea infused with the conviction that America's long, heroic journey must go forever upward.

And so, my fellow Americans, as we stand at the edge of the 21st century, let us begin anew with energy and hope, with faith and discipline. And let us work until our work is done. The Scripture says, "And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not."

From this joyful mountaintop of celebration we hear a call to service in the valley. We have heard the trumpets, we have changed the guard. And now each in our own way, and with God's help, we must answer the call.

Thank you, and God bless you all.

Not only did St. Augustine City’s residents “force the Spring” Monday night – we beat the Ku Klux Klan (again)!

In my life, I reckon that the joy of beating the Ku Klux Klan is second only to beating Big Government or Big Business tyrants -- like the Oak Ridge Operations Office of the U.S. Department of Energy and Union Carbide Nuclear Division, dysfunctional organizations that put "lost" 4.2 million pounds of mercury into creeks (and nuclear weapons workers’ lungs and brains), expecting workers to respect the U.S. Government’s indecent demand that nuclear weapons workers respect an oath of silence (omerta) and keep quiet about the pollution and unsafe workplaces.

Beating the Ku Klux Klan is something that has happened with increasing frequency in recent years here in St. Augustine, Florida Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously called St. Augustine, Florida “the most lawless city in America.” See Dr. King’s June 11, 1964 letter to rabbis. (Many rabbis responded to Dr. King’s letter, resulting the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history here on June 18, 1964.

In the last six years, St. Augustine residents have beaten the KKK (and all its works and pomps), as we:

1. Won a Federal Court Order for Rainbow flags on our Bridge of Lions June 8-13, 2005, honoring Gay Pride week (thereby overcoming KKK threats to City Commissioners, who bowed to anti-Gay hatred only to be trounced before the Honorable Henry Lee Adams, Jr. in Federal Court);

2. Halted efforts in 2007 by our City Commissioners, our then-City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS and the large Florida corporate law firm of AKERMAN SENTERFITT (and lawyer WILLIAM PENCE) to bring 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste back to the Lincolnville neighborhood for a “park.” Their “junk science” was rejected by our community. Solid waste is now in a Class I landfill, where it will remain.

3. Got the City of St. Augustine fined by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection for illegal dumping of solid waste, sewage and semi-treated sewage effluents in the African-American communities of West Augustine and Lincolnville.

4. Elected Justice Department retiree J. Kenneth Bryan County Commissioner in 2008 (he’s now County Commission Chairman);

5. Forced the retirement of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS in 2010.

6. Elected local historic preservation advocate Nancy Sikes-Kline (2008) to City Commission, elected local lawyer Leeana Freeman to City Commission (2008) and elected former Department of the Interior and Council on Environmental Quality lawyer William Leary to City Commission (2010).

7. Persuaded the City to spend money on Lincolnville, commencing days after HARRISS retired in 2010 with $20,000 in sidewalks for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue, culminating in the proposed “Lift Up Lincolnville” plan and $9 million in Riberia Street improvements in 2011.

As President Clinton said in his First Inaugural Address, “This is OUR time!” He said, in the wonderful words that Georgetown’s Father Healy (a professor of English literature):

We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have not done so. Instead we have drifted, and that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence. Though our challenges are fearsome, so are our strengths. Americans have ever been a restless, questing, hopeful people, and we must bring to our task today the vision and will of those who came before us. From our Revolution to the Civil War, to the Great Depression, to the Civil Rights movement, our people have always mustered the determination to construct from these crises the pillars of our history. Thomas Jefferson believed that to preserve the very foundations of our nation we would need dramatic change from time to time. Well, my fellow Americans, this is OUR time. Let us embrace it.

Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our OWN renewal. There is nothing WRONG with America that cannot be cured by what is RIGHT with America.

Today, I am proud of the City of St. Augustine. It has taken almost six years, and the effort was worth it.

We “shall overcome” – we have overcome – which is why I thanked our City Commissioners and City Manager Monday night, February 28, 2011, and thank them again now!

As Nelson Mandela once said to his colleagues, “We did it!”

Thanks to everyone, including City Manager John Regan, Mayor Joseph Boles, Vice Mayor Leeana Freeman and Commissioners Errol Jones, William Leary and Nancy Sikes-Kline.

Our cause endures. There is so much to accomplish here.

Let’s “force the spring” by ending the secrecy and unaccountability City of St. Augustine’s cat’s paw agency, the First America Foundation, to which the City has assigned the mission of celebrating our 450^th anniversary (and other coming celebrations), while claiming exemption from Sunshine and Open Records laws, showing contempt for the 3.8 million Florida voters who voted in November 1992 to enact Article I, Section 24 of our Florida Constitution.

Let’s “force the spring” by uniting our city and ending discrimination and pollution, creating green jobs and transforming Lincolnville (a/k/a “the Pollution Peninsula”) and West Augustine.

Let’s redouble our efforts to make St. Augustine, Florida and St. Johns County a better place. Let’s work for Congressional enactment of the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway. www.staugustgreen.com. It will include a Civil Rights Museum honoring the civil rights activists who helped adopt the 1964 Civil Rights Act through their activism right here in St. Augustine. Today, African-Americans, women, Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals and other Americans enjoy liberty and justice thanks to what happened here in St. Augustine.

Our Civil Rights history deserves a suitable museum, like those in Memphis and Birmingham.

As Albert Camus said, “if you do not help us do this, then who else in the world will help us do this?”

My first boss, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy, told the Democratic National Convention in 1980:

… may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:

"I am a part of all that I have met
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are --
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

… For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.

What do you reckon?

City of St. Augustine: Explanation of heraldry of our Nation's Oldest City's coat of arms

Coat of Arms

The City of St. Augustine's Coat of Arms
In the year 1715 the citizens of St. Augustine petitioned His Majesty Philip V, King of Spain to grant the city a coat of arms for its faithful and courageous service to Spain. There is no record of the request being fulfilled, so in 1991, the City Commission passed a resolution authorizing a formal request to His Majesty Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, for a Coat of Arms for the city.

Research conducted by Vicente de Cardenas y Vicent, Herald, King of Arms, Dean of the Corps of Heralds for Spain, revealed that a Coat of Arms for the City had indeed been authorized for the City by King Philip V on November 26, 1715. The City received the Coat of Arms on October 12, 1991, nearly 276 years after it was granted.

Description
The shield by its shape is a 15th century Spanish shield. It is quartered, by a simple gold cross representing Christianity.

The first quarter, the upper left side of the shield, includes a gold fleur-de-lis on a royal blue background. This is a symbolic connection to the French House of Bourbon since King Philip V was the grandson of the French King Louie XIV. A war of session had been fought, and his grandfather aided Philip, to gain the Spanish throne. The gold of the fleur-de-lis denotes generosity, valor and perseverance. The fleur-de-lis s itself is a three leafed flower or lily. Each leaf represents a particular characteristic – faith, wisdom, and valor. The blue background represents loyalty and splendor.

In the second quarter, the upper right area, there is a golden castle with black masonry joints, with the windows and door in red, on a red background. This portion of the shield corresponds to the arms of the former kingdom of Castille. The castle is a sign of defense and safety. The red of the background indicated fortitude and creative power.

In the third quarter, we again see the purple Lion of the province of Leon. The Lion is rampant, standing erect, in the fighting position signifying majesty and kingship. In the Middle Ages the lion was representative of strength, courage, and generosity. The tongue and claws are red, and the gold crown on the lion’s head alludes to the fact Leon was once a kingdom. The silver used for the background shows nobility and serenity.

In the fourth quarter there is an arm in armor, bent at the elbow, holding a silver sword on a red background which indicates a military connection. It was placed on the coat of arms to honor the military garrison in St. Augustine for it was a Spanish military outpost. King Philip wanted to be sure the military history of the city was remembered. The choice of the color silver for the armor indicates nobility and serenity and the red background is a tribute to the military garrisoned in St. Augustine.

For a crest, the circle of walls with gates, towers, windows and sentry boxes, all in gold indicates that this coat of arms is for a city.

Use of the Coat of Arms
In December, 1991, the City Commission adopted the new Coat of Arms as the official city seal and, made it unlawful for "any person to utilize any image or impression of the city seal without the consent, in writing, of the city commission."

USDOJ Press Release: Five Florida Executives Indicted on Health Care Fraud Charges

For Immediate Release March 2, 2011	United States Attorney's Office Middle District of Florida Contact: (813) 274-6000
Five Former Executives Indicted on Health Care Fraud Charges TAMPA, FL—United States Attorney Robert E. O'Neill announces the return by a grand jury of an indictment charging five former executives of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. ("WellCare") with conspiracy to commit Medicaid fraud, false statements, and other related charges. Specifically, the indictment charges Todd S. Farha (42, Tampa), former chief executive officer; Thaddeus M.S. Bereday (45, Tampa), former general counsel; Paul L. Behrens (49, Odessa), former chief financial officer; William L. Kale (61, Oldsmar), former vice president of Harmony Behavioral Health, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of WellCare; and Peter E. Clay, (54, Wellesley, Massachusetts), former vice president of Medical Economics. The maximum penalty for each health care fraud count is up to 10 years’ imprisonment. The maximum term of imprisonment for each of the other counts is up to five years. According to the indictment, beginning in July 2003 and continuing until October 24, 2007, the defendants, all former executives of WellCare, conspired to engage and engaged in a scheme to defraud the Florida Medicaid program by making false and fraudulent statements relating to expenditure information for behavioral health care services. WellCare operates health maintenance organizations ("HMOs") in several states targeted to government-sponsored health care benefit programs such as Medicaid. Two WellCare HMOs (StayWell and Healthease) operating in Florida, contracted with the Agency for Health Care Administration ("AHCA"), the Florida agency which administers the Medicaid program, to provide Florida Medicaid program recipients with an array of services, including behavioral health services. In 2002, Florida enacted a statute which required Florida Medicaid HMOs to expend 80 percent of the Medicaid premium paid for certain behavioral health services upon the provision of those services. If the HMO expended less than 80 percent of the premium, the difference was required to be returned to AHCA. The indictment alleges, in detail, the ways in which the defendants falsely and fraudulently schemed to submit inflated expenditure information in the company's annual reports and certifications to AHCA in order to reduce the WellCare HMOs' contractual payback obligations for behavioral health care services. On May 5, 2009 the United States filed charges in an information and deferred prosecution agreement against WellCare. Pursuant to that deferred prosecution agreement, WellCare was required to pay $40 million in restitution, forfeit another $40 million to the United States, and cooperate with the government's criminal investigation. On that same day, an information and plea agreement for co-conspirator Gregory West were unsealed. In the plea agreement, West, a former employee of WellCare, admitted his participation in the scheme to defraud the Medicaid program. An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services- Office of Inspector General, and the Florida Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Jay Trezevant and Cherie Krigsman. As the charging documents against WellCare reveal, the ongoing investigation does not directly concern WellCare's delivery of health care services to any person.

Huffington Post:: CORAL REEFS COULD BE GONE BY 2050

A recent study has found that all of the world's coral reefs could be gone by 2050. If lost, 500 million people's livelihoods worldwide would be threatened.

The World Resources Institute report, "Reefs at Risk Revisited," suggests that by 2030, over 90 percent of coral reefs will be threatened. If action isn't taken soon, nearly all reefs will be threatened by 2050. Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration states, "Threats on land, along the coast and in the water are converging in a perfect storm of threats to reefs."

The AFP suggests that these threats include overfishing, coastal development, pollution, and climate change. Warming sea temperatures lead to coral bleaching, a stress response where corals expose their white skeletons. In 2005, the Caribbean saw the most extensive coral bleaching event ever recorded, often attributed to rising ocean temperatures. CO2 emissions are also making the oceans more acidic. Because of the rising acidity levels, some scientists claim we will see conditions not witnessed since the period of dinosaurs.

Lauretta Burke, one of the report's lead authors, feels that quick action could help save the reefs. She encourages policymakers to reduce overfishing and cut greenhouse gas emissions. If action is not taken though, millions of people will suffer. Shorelines will lose protection from storms -- a Time Magazine post suggests that up to 90 percent of the energy from wind generated waves is absorbed by reef ecosystems. If reefs are lost, coastal communities will lose a source of food security and tourism.