Tuesday, July 21, 2015

LET WE, THE PEOPLE, BE HEARD AND HEEDED: LETTER TO Mayor Shaver, Vice Mayor Horvath and Commissioners Freeman, Sikes-Kline and Neville



Sent: Tue, Jul 21, 2015 11:09 am
Subject: Re: July 27, 2015 City Commission meeting: first reading on DOW PUD Requires Full Public Comment: Please Consider My Three Exhibits and Read Mr. Dow's August 4, 2001 Record Column

Re: July 27, 2015 City Commission meeting: first reading on DOW PUD Requires Full Public Comment: Please Consider My Three Exhibits and Read Mr. Dow's August 4, 2001 Record Column

Dear Mayor Shaver, Vice Mayor Horvath and Commissioners Freeman, Sikes-Kline and Neville:
1. Please allow public comment on the DOW PUD after the DOW PUD presentations by the applicant's and opponent's counsel.
2. Reasonable opportunity for public comment is required by the First Amendment and F.S. 286.0114. http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2013/286.0114
3. Public comment on ordinances up for first reading is required at St. Augustine Beach and the St. Johns County Commission.
4. City Attorney Lopez has expressed no principled reason for continued violations of citizens' civil and constitutional rights.
5. Full public comment on the DOW PUD on July 27 is urgently required. Please give people the option to speak in general public comment or after presentations.
6. Failure to provide full public comment is reversible error. The whole world is watching.
7. Anything less would embarrass our City in the eyes of the world and it would reveal bias toward the speculator-developer, DAVID BARTON CORNEAL.
8. Please see Mr. Kenneth Worcester Dow's August 4, 2001 column (below).
9. Reversible error by PZB: please review the three exhibits I presented to PZB on May 5, 2015 (which City Planning and Building Director DAVID BIRCHIM and staff inexplicably, inexcusably and rudely failed and refused to share with PZB members, merely giving them to the Clerk after the hearing was concluded).
Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ed Slavin
904-377-4998
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com

Kenneth Worcester Dow's Letter: Village donor wants local involvement


http://staugustine.com/stories/080401/opi_0804010020.shtml#.VabL4jpiOfU

Kenneth Worcester Dow's Letter: Village donor wants local involvement


Letter: Village donor wants local involvement

Kenneth Worcester Dow
St. Augustine Record
Published Saturday, August 04, 2001
My name is Kenneth Dow. I donated my property between Cordova Street and St. George Street in St. Augustine to the Museum of Arts and Science in Daytona with the goal of restoring these homes to their original beauty.

Once restored, these homes would serve as a quality museum complex housing my family furnishings, specific artwork, and treasures that I had collected specifically for these homes. The focus of this project has never wavered, and neither has my intent to see it through to its fruition.

I have made myself clear from the conception of this project that I want the property to remain as historically original as possible. The Museum of Arts and Sciences assured me that the Village Museum would house the quality artwork, furniture, and other belongings that I have donated specifically for this project, to make the Village Museum a credible, historically accurate display.

It saddens me to read, and hear the turmoil over the Village Museum. I personally want to thank all my friends and the St. Augustine residents who made the grand opening of the village such a huge success.

I watched in awe as the wonderful night unfolded before me, and I shared in the joy that we all felt that night, seeing a lifetime of work recognized and appreciated. I thought that my dream of housing a quality, credible museum complex was fulfilled.

I hope Gary Libby will restore a more workable, friendly relationship with the St. Augustine community, and return to our original (and only) goal of making an authentic historical village and a quality museum with wonderful learning opportunities for all to delight in for years to come.

I strived for years trying to create a collection to be proud of, and made acquisitions to the collection with a museum in mind. It is deeply distressing to me to think that all of my hard work in the research and acquisition of materials, referencing and verifying records is all for naught. I am saddened to think of what will become of my prized collection.

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