St. Johns County approves contract to renovate historic Old Jail. (Lucia Viti, St. Augustine Record, April 23, 2026)

Another day, another public interest victory in St. Johns County!  

Thanks to County Commissioners, Sheriff Robert Hardwick, Trey Alexander Asner, David Nolan, St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society and thousands of others for supporting the preservation of the historic 1953 Old Jail Annex, where 1000+ people were illegally incarcerated during 1963-1964, some tortured, including some 16 Rabbis supporting Civil Rights laws arrested for praying on June 11, 1964.  

Others arrested here and incarcerated there were the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., local resident Barbara B. Allen, the  the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, Rev. Hosea Williams, Rev. Andrew Jackson Young (later our United States Ambassador to the United Nations, a Congressman and the Mayor of Atlanta, Dr. Robert B. Hayling, D.D.S., Mary Peabody, mother of the Governor of Massachusetts (Endicott Peabody), the St. Augustine Four (Audrey Nell Edwards, JoeAnn Anderson Ulmer, Willie Carl Singleton, and Samuel White)who were illegally incarcerated by segregationist St. Johns County Court Judge Charles Mathis, who locked them up in state juvenile penitentiaries for six months after they and their parents refused to give in to his indecent proposals that they stop demonstrating against segregation and for civil rights.    

Upon his release from the Old Jail Annex, Dr. King reportedly stated it was the nicest jail he had ever been in.  It was the only place in Florida where he was incarcerated.  One week after Dr. King's arrest, sixteen (16) Rabbis and one administrator were arrested for praying in St. Augustine. 

The 1953 Old Jail was almost demolished. We, the People, found out about the proposal during Black History Month in 2023.  We stopped the sneaky satraps in their tracks.  

After I heard St. Johns County officials spoke of demolishing this historic structure in a budget meeting, We, the People spoke out.  At long last, we were heard and needed.  

I spoke quietly with Sheriff Robert Hardwick about it.  

Acclaimed civil rights historian David Nolan, the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Association, Rabbi Merrill Shapiro  and other Rabbis spoke out in favor of preservation.  

Wrongfully fired former County Historic Preservation Officer Trey Alexander Asner wrote a reasoned and documented proposal.  

Yet smug, unthinking County apparatchiks, led by County Administrator JUYYAO "JOY" ANDREWS, graduate of a Chinese Communist law school, actually signed a demolition contract!  

The County Commission has suzerainty over County properties, including this one.  Hence, attempts to blame the Sheriff for their demolition plans were, at best, facetious

Yes, my friends, County Administrators actually tried to blame the Sheriff.  Their proposed "reuse" of the historic property after demolition was as a parking lot.  

Willful blindness and feigned ignorance of historic preservation. 

The corrupt County Administration Philistines were defeated, once again.  

By unanimous vote 5-0 on the April 20, 2026 Consent Agenda of St. Johns County Commission Item 13, the historic Old Jail Annex will be restored, preserved and protected.  

Forever.

As Alexander Hamilton said, "Here, sir, the people govern."

Let freedom ring!

More here:

https://stjohnsclerk.com/minrec/agendas/2026/042126BCC/04-21-26CON13.pdf

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/08/blog-post.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/recommendation-to-nominate-historic-st.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/08/draft-statement-of-ed-slavin-to-sjc.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/06/xxxxxx-dear-ms.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/06/st-augustine-will-commemorate.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/big-victory-no-demolition-of-1953.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/05/county-administrator-please-change-june.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/03/statement-of-ed-slavin-to-st-johns.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/liz-ryans-february-23-2025-interview.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/liz-ryans-february-23-2025-interview.html

2023/08/thank-you-for-saving-historic-canright.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/could-st-johns-countys-old-jail-where.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/read-trey-alexander-asner-letter-to.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/pitiful-february-4-2025-sjc-press.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/02/advocates-try-to-save-civil-rights.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/speak-out-february-10-re-saving-st.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/2025/01/beaten-by-klan-in-1963-black-man-just.html

https://cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com/

From April 23, 2026 St. Augustine Record:

St. Johns County approves contract to renovate historic Old Jail

Lucia Viti

St. Augustine Record

April 23, 2026, 4:09 p.m. ET

Last year, the building that once jailed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and was the site of the largest mass arrest of Jewish rabbis in American history was under consideration for demolition because of maintenance issues and the need for office and parking space.

The consideration to demolish the Detention Center Annex, formerly known as the Old Jail, at 4025 Lewis Speedway, created a firestorm among local historians, rabbis and residents St. Augustine. Backlash paused the decision while the county considered additional options.

Earlier this month, the St. Johns County Commission approved a contract to move forward with the renovation of the county’s Jail Annex to preserve the historically significant structure while maximizing public assets.

According to a news release issued by the county's (sic), collaboration between the St. Johns County’s Infrastructure Delivery Team, the St. Johns County Facilities Management, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the Cultural Resource Review Board.

"The project would not have been possible without meaningful input from residents and stakeholders following earlier discussions about the building’s future," the release said.

County Administrator Joy Andrews described the project as emblematic of the county and the community working together.

“We listened carefully, evaluated all options, and ultimately identified a path forward that preserves an important piece of our history while ensuring the facility continues to serve a functional purpose for our residents,” she said.

St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said that he was happy with a solution that respects the building’s legacy and supports the office's operational needs.

“This outcome reflects a thoughtful balance between preservation and progress,” he said in the release.

The Cultural Resource Review Board played a key role in evaluating the building’s historical significance and advising on preservation considerations.

“This is a meaningful step forward in protecting a site that holds deep historical and cultural importance in our community,” Cultural Resource Review Board Chair Susan Schjelderup said. “Preserving structures like the Jail Annex helps ensure that future generations understand and appreciate our shared history.”

The Historical Significance of the Old County Jail

Constructed in the 1950s, the jail's historical significance dates to 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson was told that if “he wanted to keep an eye on the leaders of the civil rights movement, he should just look at the St. Johns County Jail because that's where they all were incarcerated.

On June 18, 16 rabbis were arrested and jailed with King in the St. Johns County Jail. The rabbis composed the famous, “Why We Went Letter.” The story made national headlines, including The New York Times, which touted “16 Rabbis Arrested as Pool Dive-In Sets off St. Augustine Rights Clash” on its front page.

s St. Augustine’s drama unfolded center stage, the U.S. Senate ended its 83-day filibuster and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law two weeks later.

“Why We Went Letter,” is publicly read at the site (sic) of the St. Augustine arrest every June.

In an earlier interview with the St. Augustine Record, local historian David Nolan detailed the building’s historical significance and underscored that it was "the government’s responsibility to maintain the historic buildings they own.

"Discussions must focus on preservation," he said. "Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Thomas May Construction Company will provide the labor, supervision, equipment and materials for $1.63 million. Construction will include casework and countertops, new commercial doors and hardware, a new roof, storefront window assemblies, exterior stucco, framing and drywall along with new flooring, painting of the building’s interior and exterior, new toilets, plumbing fixtures, an HVAC System, electrical circuits, VE lighting and fixtures, a new Fire Alarm System and more.

“The Old County Jail offers a historical educational value, while serving as an important function for tourism,” Nolan said. “St. Augustine is a history teacher to America at large, and we must show America's children something more than ghosts, and pirates and Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. We must show historical places where real things happened.”

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job (David A. Fahrenthold, Luke Broadwater & Andrea Fuller, NY Times, April 25, 2026)

From The New York Times:

Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job

The National Park Service increased the value of the contract several times over and then awarded it to Maryland-based Clark Construction, in a process that experts said was highly unusual.

By David A. FahrentholdLuke Broadwater and Andrea Fuller

The reporters reviewed dozens of pages of documents about this contract and analyzed other contracts awarded for similar projects.

• April 25, 2026

To build his mammoth White House ballroom, President Trump last summer chose Maryland-based Clark Construction. Since then, Mr. Trump has repeatedly sung the company’s praises, even saying he wanted it to refurbish projects all over Washington.

In January, government documents show, the Trump administration secretly gave the company a no-bid contract to do another job at a sharply inflated price.

The National Park Service wanted to repair two ornamental fountains in Lafayette Park, across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The Biden administration in 2022 had estimated the work would cost $3.3 million. But Mr. Trump’s government agreed to pay Clark $11.9 million to do it, and later added tasks that increased the contract to $17.4 million, the documents show.

Fountain

Fountain

Lafayette Park

Significant construction

is already underway in the park

Pennsylvania Avenue

White

House

East Wing

The area under

construction extends

into the South Lawn

Source: Aerial image by Nearmap taken on March 20.

Leanne Abraham/The New York Times

The agency did so without considering offers from other firms, citing a rarely used “urgency” exception to normal open-bidding procedures usually meant for emergencies like war or natural disasters. By law, federal agencies are generally supposed to seek competing bids to find the vendor that provides the best deal.

Unlike the ballroom project, which Mr. Trump says will be funded by private donations, the bill for the fountain repairs is being paid by the government.

On Friday, Mr. Trump took credit for the repairs. “The first time Lafayette Park Fountains, opposite the White House, have worked in decades,” he wrote on social media. “My Great Honor to have funded this project (and many others!), and helped.”

This contract has not been previously reported. The Trump administration did not post it in public databases of federal spending, although agencies are typically supposed to report new contracts within three business days.

The New York Times obtained internal Park Service documents showing how the contract was awarded. Contracting experts said those documents revealed that the government had repeatedly used unusual procedures to bypass competition for the project and increase the price it expected to pay.

he Park Service, for instance, added more than $1 million to the contract’s cost estimate by accounting for inflation. Twice.

“They just took the cover page of my estimate and just added a bunch of money onto it,” said Stephen J. Kirk, an independent consultant who had estimated the cost of the fountain repairs for the National Park Service in 2022. “I didn’t add those extra millions on there."

The Interior Department, which includes the Park Service, defended the contract but declined to answer specific questions about it.

“The way this contract was awarded is above board,” Katie Martin, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement. “The urgency is to ensure this project is done well ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.”

Clark Construction has worked for the federal government for more than 80 years. In response to questions from The Times, the firm provided a short statement that did not answer specific questions about the ballroom or the fountain projects.

Our track record reflects the quality of our work and our commitment to integrity,” the statement said. “We bid on work we are qualified to deliver and we follow prescribed procurement processes.”

Image

A Clark Construction box is seen at the construction site for the East Wing ballroom project.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Before last year, Clark had little overt connection to Mr. Trump, and had inked large contracts during Republican and Democratic administrations.

Then, last summer, Mr. Trump chose the firm to oversee one of Washington’s largest and most secretive projects.

The president’s ballroom plans call for a 90,000 square-foot structure on the former site of the East Wing. He has said it will be paid for by $400 million in private donations, and has declined to list the donors. The Times has identified some of them.

The president has also said that he chose the contractors and set their rates, believing the White House grounds to be exempt from contracting rules. But he declined to say how much he was paying them. There have been legal challenges to the ballroom, but a federal appeals court has allowed construction to continue, at least for now.

In January, Mr. Trump implied to The Times that Clark had offered to build the ballroom for free.

“They said: ‘Sir, we’ll do it for nothing. This is the greatest honor,’” he said.

This week, The Times asked the White House if Clark was indeed working for nothing. Taylor Rogers, a spokeswoman, said she had “nothing to add” to the president’s comments.

In fact, Clark is being paid for its work on the White House ballroom, according to a person who asked not to be named in order to discuss a sensitive matter. 

As the ballroom project was getting underway, the National Park Service sought to restart the two 1960s-era fountains in Lafayette Park. They had not worked for nearly a decade because of aging equipment.

Image

One of the Lafayette Park fountains in 1970.Credit...George Tames/The New York Times

In theory, this job was nothing like the ballroom project. It was outside the White House grounds, where normal contracting rules were supposed to apply.

But soon, government documents show that the Trump administration began taking actions to increase the contract’s price.

First, the Park Service estimated that the project would cost an additional 27 percent because of inflation. Then, puzzlingly, the service increased its estimate by another 24 percent, to again account for inflation.

By contrast, the best-known benchmark of broader inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, rose by 16 percent in the same period. A narrower industry-specific index measuring construction prices rose by 21 percent.

Then the Park Service increased its estimate by another 50 percent. This time, it attributed the increase to a “schedule compression factor.”

Contracting experts said that was unusual, too. They said that it is common to pay contractors more for going faster, but that it is usually done by asking for itemized costs — extra overtime, extra equipment — rather than adding such a large flat fee.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Mr. Kirk said.

At the same time, the documents show, officials were also building a legal justification to restrict who would be allowed to bid on the newly lucrative job.

They found that while Lafayette Park was usually open to the public, it was sometimes closed during White House state dinners, or when foreign leaders stayed at the nearby Blair House. Those occasional closures would stop the fountain repair work. So the Park Service said it would be necessary to hire one of the few contractors cleared to work inside the White House security perimeter.

That limited the pool of potential vendors to four, including Clark. The Park Service contacted all of them, according to two people familiar with the contract who asked not to be named because they were not permitted to speak publicly about the matter.

But then, Park Service officials reversed course and simply offered the job to Clark. In an internal memo, the Park Service justified that decision by invoking an exemption that allows agencies to bypass competition in urgent cases.

The service said the fountains needed to be revamped by May 2026 — at that time, about five months away — to be ready for the country’s 250th birthday. Because Clark already had people and equipment at the White House working on the ballroom, the Park Service said that only that firm was in a position to go fast enough.

“The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays,” the agency found, in a memo signed by five Park Service officials.

Image

Clark Construction’s contract to work on Lafayette Park is one of the dozen largest known National Park Service contracts in the second Trump administration.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

The Park Service has rarely relied on that kind of urgency claim to award no-bid contracts. An analysis of Park Service contracting data by The Times found that over the past decade, less than 1 percent of the agency’s contract spending relied on urgency exemptions.

Steven L. Schooner, a professor of contracting law at George Washington University, said that exemption was meant for cases with much more at stake than a birthday party, even one for a country.

“No one will die. No one’s quality of life will be diminished. There is nothing urgent about this,” he said. “Self-imposed deadlines aren’t urgency. And lack of planning isn’t urgency.”

Earlier this year, The Times reported that the Trump administration had also used the urgency exemption to justify one of several no-bid contracts given to Event Strategies, Inc., which helped organize Mr. Trump’s rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

Experts said that contract, too, seemed to stretch the definition of “urgency.” The administration wanted someone to provide services for an event celebrating the new “Trump accounts” investment vehicles. The work was urgent, the officials said, because they had decided to do it on short notice.

Steven L. Schooner, a professor of contracting law at George Washington University, said that exemption was meant for cases with much more at stake than a birthday party, even one for a country.

“No one will die. No one’s quality of life will be diminished. There is nothing urgent about this,” he said. “Self-imposed deadlines aren’t urgency. And lack of planning isn’t urgency.”

Earlier this year, The Times reported that the Trump administration had also used the urgency exemption to justify one of several no-bid contracts given to Event Strategies, Inc., which helped organize Mr. Trump’s rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021.

Experts said that contract, too, seemed to stretch the definition of “urgency.” The administration wanted someone to provide services for an event celebrating the new “Trump accounts” investment vehicles. The work was urgent, the officials said, because they had decided to do it on short notice.

Documents seen by The Times show the Lafayette fountain contract was awarded to Clark in January. In the months after that, the government added new tasks, including landscaping, as well as the addition of new benches and a kiosk. The additions increased the price to more than $17 million.

That total makes the contract one of the dozen largest known, by amount paid out during Mr. Trump’s second term, for the National Park Service.

Image

Fencing surrounds Lafayette Park to close the area to the public amid construction.Credit...Allison Robbert for The New York Times

In the past, the Park Service had posted details about other contracts related to Lafayette Park: building repair, tree care, and cleaning and waxing the park's many statues.

But it has not posted any information about the contract with Clark. The White House referred the question to the Park Service, and the Park Service declined to say why.

In January, the Park Service announced that it was hiring contractors to repair broken fountains in nine places around Washington, including Lafayette Park. It treated the Lafayette Park contract differently than the other eight.

The Park Service did not use the urgency exemption to rush any of the others along, even though they were all facing similar deadlines. Six of the other contracts were awarded after giving “fair opportunity” to other bidders, government records show, though only one company bid in each case. The other two were given as no-bid contracts under an often-used program for small businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged” Americans. None went to Clark.

The Park Service also posted all of the other contracts in public databases. Those records show that the other fountain repairs have each cost less than the Lafayette Park project’s $17 million price tag. It is difficult to compare the costs directly, because each contract involves different tasks.

Two other firms that have worked on Washington’s fountains told The Times that, among the city’s many broken water features, the ones in Lafayette Park were considered among the easiest to fix.

“As fountains go, it’s not a complicated fountain,” said Dominic Shaw, whose Texas-based company, Waterline Studios, helped refurbish the Lafayette Park fountains in 2007.

Other D.C. fountains are decades older, or require workers to deal with complex arrays of nozzles or lights, slabs of hard-to-replace granite, or long cascades of flowing water.

The Lafayette Park project consists of two oval-shaped pools, each with two rings that spray a circle of jets upward and toward the center of the ring. On the list of Washington’s fountains, Mr. Shaw said, “it would be at the bottom in terms of complexity.”

Image

The National Park Service has said the fountains needed to be revamped by May 2026 to be ready for the country’s 250th birthday.Credit...Allison Robbert for The New York Times

Lisa Friedman contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research.

David A. Fahrenthold is a Times investigative reporter writing about nonprofit organizations. He has been a reporter for two decades.

Luke Broadwater covers the White House for The Times.

Andrea Fuller is a data journalist at The Times, using data analysis to make sense of complex topics.

See more on: National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Donald Trump

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Image

One of the Lafayette Park fountains in 1970.Credit...George Tames/The New York Times

In theory, this job was nothing like the ballroom project. It was outside the White House grounds, where normal contracting rules were supposed to apply.

But soon, government documents show that the Trump administration began taking actions to increase the contract’s price.

First, the Park Service estimated that the project would cost an additional 27 percent because of inflation. Then, puzzlingly, the service increased its estimate by another 24 percent, to again account for inflation.

By contrast, the best-known benchmark of broader inflation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index, rose by 16 percent in the same period. A narrower industry-specific index measuring construction prices rose by 21 percent.

Firm Building Trump’s Ballroom Got a Secret No-Bid Contract for a Nearby Job

The National Park Service increased the value of the contract several times over and then awarded it to Maryland-based Clark Construction, in a process that experts said was highly unusual.