Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Commissioner Gardner's Newsletter re: St. Augustine Being Short of Funds

From Commissioner Gardner April 29, 2008

I’m emailing periodic reports to keep our citizens up to date on city affairs. Please email me at gardner@aug.com to add or remove your name.

Funding dominated Monday’s City Commission meeting, and one resident showed how it can be done.

Nina Vreeland was applauded on the announcement that she has contributed $20,000 to kick off a $60,000-$70,000 campaign for a St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument in our Plaza de la Constitución. Other projects didn’t fare as well, including restoration of the North City Water Works Building, 34 state-owned historic properties here, and the SR 312 bypass.

City Commissioner Errol Jones summed it up: “The city doesn’t have any money.”

Commissioners appeared to endorse a public-private partnership with the citizen Children’s Museum of St. Johns (CMSJ) to restore the North City Water Works building, but balked at leasing the property to CMSJ for 50 years at one dollar a year. A representative of the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization, which oversees highway projects in this region, admitted the decades-contemplated SR 312 bypass has taken a back seat to projects in the newly developed northwest section of the county. Money is currently allotted for property acquisition on one leg, from SR 207 to SR 16, but no construction funds.

And efforts to tackle an estimated $22 million in historic property repairs appear to be stalled. The one bright spot was a comment by Commissioner George Gardner that $350,000 in planning monies may be included in this year’s state budget for the University of Florida (UF), authorized a year ago to take over management of the properties.

In other commission action, Chief Operations Officer John Regan outlined a plan to dispose of landfill transferred from the south end of Riberia Street to the city staging area on Holmes Blvd., and Planning and Building Director Mark Knight said a study for safer pedestrian crossings along the bayfront might be more complex than expected. He said one Saturday 8,000 pedestrian crossings were counted.

Foot Soldiers Monument – With completion of the design and work begun on the monument, St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Remembrance Project Chair Barbara Vickers said the citizen group will be printing brochures to continue fundraising efforts.

North City Water Works Building – Children’s museum President Kathy Weed and Board Member Susan Connor - a professional fundraiser - were encouraged to continue efforts on their plan after hearing commissioners’ concerns. Commissioner Gardner noted the enthusiasm earlier in the meeting with announcement of a $20,000 contribution to the Foot Soldiers Monument, and urged the museum group to get pledges to generate similar enthusiasm.

State-owned historic properties – The possible start-up state funding for UF appeared to further cloud the properties’ future. At a previous commission meeting, Mayor Joe Boles urged that the city seek a 99-year lease of the properties from the state and a fundraising drive by the private Foundation for the Preservation of St. Augustine, formed some eight years ago. He suggested the University would be the city’s “educational partner.”

Commissioner Gardner said County Commission Chairman Tom Manuel told him he also favors a city long-term lease, and suggested bed tax monies could be applied to some of the properties with this equivalent of ownership. The city currently has a five-year extension of the lease it executed a decade ago to manage the properties.

Gardner proposed a bed tax commitment of one cent for five years to fund renovation of Government House – “the jewel of our historic properties” – to be developed as a St. Augustine Center for History and Culture. The University of Florida estimated a $14 million renovation cost for the building. Gardner asked City Attorney Ron Brown to investigate legal options to provide the funding.

“We keep saying the properties belong to the state, or should belong to the city, or will belong to the university,” Gardner said. “They belong to the people of Florida – that’s the legislature, our county, our city, all of us. And if we keep shuffling around, the only money we’ll need for the upcoming commemorations will be for signs saying “Unsafe to Enter.”

450 planning – Commissioners ended a discussion of creating an official local 450th steering committee with no solution on how it might be done. Gardner, a member of the citizen 450 Corps that has been generating interest and ideas for the commemoration, said it will continue its work while more formal details are worked out. He anticipates a web site will soon be available for citizen input.

Holmes Blvd. landfill - Chief Operations Officer Regan outlined a draft consent order with the state Department of Environmental Protection that would dispose of transferred landfill from the south end of Riberia Street by February 2009 and establish environmental monitoring at the Riberia Street site.

Regan said costs would include $840,000 for the disposal project and $340,000 for a monitoring system and capping with clean soil and landscaping on Riberia Street. Under the plan, the material will be separated at Holmes Blvd., with clean fill transferred to a Nassau County environmental landfill for required layer separation, and remaining solid material transferred to an authorized landfill. The plan will be detailed at a public meeting May 8 in the Alcazar Room, voted on by commissioners at their May 12 meeting, then sent to the Nassau County Commission for approval.

Henry Flagler – “I think it more likely I am spending an unnecessary amount of money in the foundation walls, but I comfort myself in the reflection that a hundred years hence it will be all the same to me and the building the better because of my extravagance.”

From St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, a series of twelve 1,000-word booklets by George Gardner on famous people and events in our history, from Ponce de Leon through Henry Flagler. For the complete set at $15 plus $3 shipping and handling. Contact gardner@aug.com.

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