Corrupt City of St. Augustine expects to finish most of Coquina Avenue site improvements by year's end (SAR)

Three feet elevation, with three foot sea level rise projection = FREEMAN's folly.

Commissioner LEANNA SOPHIA AMARU FREEMAN, Vice Mayor, divorce lawyer, is subject of a pending Florida Ethics Commission complaint on this ill-advised deal.

TROY BLEVINS, who works for new PZB member MICHAEL DAVIS (A.D. DAVIS CONSTRUCTION COMPANY owner), was the broker.

Instead of donating the land, the wealthy family that owned the property sold it.  That family's money is the result of exploiting labor of African-Americans in turpentine camps that the late Stetson Kennedy, my mentor,  and Zora Neal Hurston documented as virtual slavery.

City Manager JOHN PATRICK REGAN, P.E., City Public Works Director MICHAEL G. CULLUM, P.E., City Assistant Public Works Director TODD SMITH, P.G., and City Commission breached their fiduciary duty.

When I asked questions about it on January 31, 2019 at an all-white Galimore Center meeting in anticipation of bogus "Keeping History Above Water Conference" at Flagler College, CULLUM invited me to "step outside."  He's never apologized.

I was excluded from the KHAW Conference.  EPA's desultory Office for External Civil Rights investigation is now itself under investigation by the EPA Inspector General, two agents having come from Atlanta to interview me.

The City's shameless PR on this high-priced land acquisition and dubious park with alleged flood control benefits continues.

Here's the St. Augustine Record's latest smarmy pro-corruption, pro-City, pro-mendacity spin:

City of St. Augustine expects to finish most of Coquina Avenue site improvements by year's end



By Sheldon Gardner
Posted Oct 22, 2019 at 5:15 PM
St. Augustine officials hope to give city residents a Christmas present this year: a new park equipped with flood protection in Davis Shores, city Public Works Director Mike Cullum said.

The city bought the land at 91 and 93 Coquina Ave. this year to create a passive waterfront park for city residents and to help reduce flooding in that area.

Officials are gearing up for work at the site.

One of the first steps is for the Meldrim Cottage to be moved from the land — the small wood-frame cottage was connected to St. Johns County’s turpentine industry in the 1900s, and the Florida Agricultural Museum plans to move the cottage to its property in Palm Coast in early November.

After that, construction can move ahead fully, Cullum said.

As for plans to reduce flooding in the immediate area, the city has already placed a small berm at the site to help deal with flooding during extra-high tides, Cullum said. That has already been tested.

“It held the water back every nicely,” Cullum said.

The city also plans to raise the upland portion of the site to 7 feet above sea level, he said. The city would also like to add a smart valve that will prevent stormwater from backing up into the area, but that piece of the project is expected to be added after Christmas as long as the city can get a grant for it, Cullum sad. The smart valve is expected to cost about $150,000.

Work on the land includes cutting down invasive species, such as Australian pines. Some of the Australian pines will be left because of their history in Davis Shores.

St. Augustine commissioners voted in January to buy the property. There was some debate at a later Commission meeting after former Mayor Nancy Shaver said she wanted the city to reconsider the decision to purchase the property.

Ultimately the city paid about $460,784 for the property, Assistant City Manager Meredith Breidenstein said.

The site work will mostly be done by the city, but there will be an added cost for cutting trees.

The park will be passive, which means having few additions to the site. The city plans to add coquina benches, a coquina table and an interpretive kiosk that will describe the history of the area.

Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman said the project should reduce flooding that Davis Shores residents regularly encounter in that spot.

“A lot of (residents) have to go through (that area) to get to and from their homes and to get out (of the neighborhood) — I don’t think they should have to drive through saltwater just because it’s high tide,” she said.