St. Augustine Record devotes 96 words to Native American archeology issue

On February 17, 2018, I published a lengthy investigative report on Red House Bluff on this blog, here.  On February 18, 2018, The St. Augustine Record published 96 words on the issue -- not nearly enough -- not nearly enough -- to inform its readers about a festering scandal that embroils successive City Commissions in a coverup that evidences environmental racism and favoritism toward developers.  The Record and GateHouse are NOT fulfilling the "watchdog" function that our Founders had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.

I've been covering this story since 2006, when I exposed this outrage in The Collective Press.

Here are the Record's 96 words, followed by the full story with online comments:

• Commissioners moved a few ordinances to second reading that will assign land use, zoning and archaeological zone designations to the former Whispering Creek proposed development on Lewis Speedway north of St. Augustine High School. The site includes Native American artifacts. The development did not come to fruition and is now in the hands of a bank. The agreements provide for protection of the artifacts and an updated study of the site to see if more protection is needed – an archaeological investigation was finished in 2003. The ordinances will come back to the commission for further review.

City of St. Augustine notebook: Commissioners start plan to repair Municipal Marina


By Sheldon Gardner
Posted Feb 15, 2018 at 7:24 PM
Updated Feb 16, 2018 at 6:42 AM

St. Augustine commissioners moved ahead on several initiatives this week.


Commissioners supported developing a plan to spend about $3.5 million to repair the St. Augustine Municipal Marina from hurricane damage and also strengthen it to withstand up to a Category 2 hurricane. The plan will come back to the commission for further consideration. City officials expect to get Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement for some of the cost. The marina will be able to pay for the debt itself because it creates revenue through fees for things like dockage and mooring, officials said No tax dollars are spent on the marina because of the revenue it makes, said Jim Piggott, general services director.

Commissioners moved a few ordinances to second reading that will assign land use, zoning and archaeological zone designations to the former Whispering Creek proposed development on Lewis Speedway north of St. Augustine High School. The site includes Native American artifacts. The development did not come to fruition and is now in the hands of a bank. The agreements provide for protection of the artifacts and an updated study of the site to see if more protection is needed – an archaeological investigation was finished in 2003. The ordinances will come back to the commission for further review.

The city plans to spend $25,000 to bring the Urban Land Institute into the city to have a panel study its wastewater treatment facility and how to deal with vulnerabilities like sea level rise.

The city also authorized selling property for $2,300 to the Florida Department of Transportation for a sidewalk to be built along the west side of U.S. 1 from the city to north of the St. Johns County offices. It could be two or more years before the sidewalk is finished.

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• Edward Adelbert Slavin
 
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1. This same City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir) during 2005-2006. We, the People won on that one in 2008.
2. The City of St. Augustine 's insensitive mismanagement of Native American archeology continued Monday night, on Lincoln's Birthday, when Mayor Nancy Shaver gaveled me, then apologized twice, for not recognizing me to speak on it.
3. My concerns -- and those of Betty Jean Kalaidi and adjoining landowner Diane Mills -- were then essentially ignored in their rush to pass flawed legislation on the fly. Why?
4. In 2003, contractor ESI found large quantities of pottery and over a kilogram of long bone fragments in a 306 square meter rise.
5. Then work stopped, despite ESI’s recommendation for further investigation. The long bones were never chemically analyzed to determine if they were human. A state form was filled out claiming only animal bones were involved. The developer sidestepped the issue of possible Indian graves.
6. ESI concluded that Red House Bluff involved possible "prehistoric land altering activities" and a "largely intact cultural resource associated with the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods," a time period that spanned 2000 years before Christ was born to 750 A.D.
7. ESI concludes, "Two dominant cultural concentrations, the Orange and St. Johns, yielded cultural concentrations that can contribute significant new information toward the better understanding of these periods in Northeast Florida." ESI concluded that the site is potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places and should be preserved. If preservation is not a viable option, then additional work would be necessary to determine eligibility status."
8. In 2018, Commissioners were in a hurry. There was NO project pending. NO deadline.« less

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• Edward Adelbert Slavin
 
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9. Jacksonville's 55-lawyer Rogers Towers law firm partner Ellen Avery Smith actually demanded that Environmental Sciences, Inc. jointly make decision with City. ESI did 2003 incurious archaeological study.
10. Intentionally inadequate ESI archeological work in 2003?
11. No trench test!
12. Test holes dug only every 50 meters instead of closer.
13. ESI study erroneously said site was in Duval County, w/ other incorrect background
14. Flawed study appeared designed NOT to find much, like other developer-paid contractor studies.
15. Secrecy has contaminated the process, 1999-2018. No FLUM Amendment 1999-2018. Why?
16. ESI study NEVER shared by City Manager Wm. Harriss, et al. w/ City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt before January 9, 2006 meeting on PUD. Why?
17. A 3.06 acre park enacted in 2006 disappeared, because PUD expired.
18. May we have it back, please?
19. Rogers Towers revised ordinance draft just before and during 2/12/2018 meeting, w/o notice, w/ no copies provided public.
20. Commissioners refused to table it. Why?
21. City Commission's decision stinks.
22. Commissioners must reconsider, and invite City Archaeologist Andrea White to attend this time.
23. The University of Florida Anthropology Department must study the site thoroughly, without fear or favor.
24. Enough flummery.
25. Procedures must provide for cross-examination by citizens of witnesses in land development decision making.
26. Our LDR process is broken.
27. Predictable result: two itty-bitty cities and St. Johns County are empowering fraud by landowners, who are destroying our history, archaeology and natural beauty. Former SJC Commission Chair Ben Rich said developers were "worse than the worst carpetbaggers." Enough.
For more on Red House Bluff: please read investigation on my blog.« less

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• Edward Adelbert Slavin
 
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1. ALL Four Commissioners attending the meeting were in a hurry. They should have tabled the items. No "data-based decisions," because a demand was made by 55 lawyer Rogers Towers law firm.
2. The Environmental Sciences, Inc. archaeological "investigation" in 2003 was not worthy of belief.
3. For nearly 20 years, the developer-dominated government of the City of St. Augustine, Florida has mismanaged Red House Bluff, a significant 3000-4000 year old Native American archaeological site on the west side of Lewis Speedway, just north of St. Augustine High School.
4. Why it matters: Just north of St. Augustine High School, bordering Lewis Speedway, there's a 3000-4000 year old Native American archaeological site. It is likely a burial place of a cacique, shaman or chief, according to Dr. Kenneth E. Sassaman, Ph.D., whom I interviewed in 2006. After I sent it to him by Federal Express, Dr. Sassaman reviewed at my request a flawed developer's contract archeologist ESI report on the site. St. Augustine sells itself as Our Nation's Oldest City.
5. St. Augustine City leaders are understandably focused on Spanish colonial history but don't give a fig about preserving and protecting 12,000 years of our Native American history.
6. They are not unlike ethnocentric or racist officials elsewhere, in Florida, Alabama and other states, who have used Native American archaeological sites as fill for roads and bridges, and look the other way when speculators developers destroy archaeology.
7. Buried treasures reflecting Spanish history are valued. Native American history, NO. The technical term for this insolent insouciance is environmental racism. Enough flummery.
8. We need investigative reporting, not stenography. For more, please read my blog and watch the meeting video.« less