Sunday, June 12, 2022

'For everything there is a season' | Steve Cottrell. (SAR)

GANNETT bean-counters planning to restore our daily Opinion page, with letters to the editor and columns? If so, good news. 

On another subject, glad that Steve Cottrell is back, 

Also, delighted that Mr. Cottrell actually meets with people and shares meals.

When he first became a Record columnist, he refused to talk with people, giving snooty reasons for not speaking with our rerfom Mayor, Nancy Shaver, never returning any telephone messages from readers (including me).

From St. Augustine Record: 


'For everything there is a season' | Steve Cottrell

Steve Cottrell
Columnist

A relentless, unforgiving COVID 19 and its pernicious offspring have impacted many aspects of daily life we took for granted prior to the spring of 2020, including the amount of space available in newspapers to provide the kind of reader-driven forums typically found on an Opinion Page. The Record faced such a challenge and reluctantly decided to limit commentary to Sunday editions only – a bump in the road that will, we hope, be fully patched soon.

Meantime, this column, which previously appeared here for nearly seven years, has been resurrected and scheduled to run every other Sunday. It is a privilege I don’t take lightly.

Flagler College baseball coach Dave Barnett acknowledges the crowd before Sunday's game at Drysdale Field as he was honored for winning his 1,000th career game.

Congratulations, Coach Barnett

First of all, congratulations to Dave Barnett, longtime baseball coach at Flagler College, on reaching the milestone of 1,000 wins – all of them at Flagler. He began the 2022 season with 982 coaching victories and finished with 1,007. 

I don’t know Dave well, but a couple of years ago – just before the pandemic came to town and altered our lives – we met for lunch and exchanged stories of our time as baseball players. Dave was far more successful, so, naturally, he had more stories to tell. And better stories, to boot.

Neither of us enjoyed minor league success, but at least we had an opportunity; Dave by the Expos, me by the Red Sox. So a tip of my tweed cap to Dave Barnett for accomplishing what only seven other NCAA Division II baseball coaches have ever accomplished: A thousand wins. And here’s hoping he wins a few hundred more before retiring.

Election season on the horizon

Although the 2022 Flagler College baseball season has ended, primary election season is just getting started in St. Johns County. In several local nonpartisan contests, however – where only two people are running for the office – voters will have to wait until the November General Election to make a choice.

In St. Augustine, a fascinating August primary battle nearly occurred when two seated city commissioners decided to run for mayor.

Roxanne Horvath

More:Former St. Augustine Record managing editor Margo Pope receives history award

More:A reflection of the legacy of former Mayor Edward 'Eddy' Mussallem

With incumbent mayor Tracy Upchurch not seeking reelection, commissioners Roxanne Horvath and Nancy Sikes-Kline decided to seek the office, as did Tim Miscovich Jr. That meant a three-way race – at least until May 10, when Commissioner Horvath advised Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes, “Please consider this my formal letter of withdrawal for the position of Mayor for the City of St. Augustine election 2022. The timing is not right for me, at this time, to seek this position. I look forward to serving the city in my current commission seat 1 for two additional years from December 2022.”

Neither of us enjoyed minor league success, but at least we had an opportunity; Dave by the Expos, me by the Red Sox. So a tip of my tweed cap to Dave Barnett for accomplishing what only seven other NCAA Division II baseball coaches have ever accomplished: A thousand wins. And here’s hoping he wins a few hundred more before retiring.

Election season on the horizon

Although the 2022 Flagler College baseball season has ended, primary election season is just getting started in St. Johns County. In several local nonpartisan contests, however – where only two people are running for the office – voters will have to wait until the November General Election to make a choice.

In St. Augustine, a fascinating August primary battle nearly occurred when two seated city commissioners decided to run for mayor.

Roxanne Horvath

More:Former St. Augustine Record managing editor Margo Pope receives history award

More:A reflection of the legacy of former Mayor Edward 'Eddy' Mussallem

With incumbent mayor Tracy Upchurch not seeking reelection, commissioners Roxanne Horvath and Nancy Sikes-Kline decided to seek the office, as did Tim Miscovich Jr. That meant a three-way race – at least until May 10, when Commissioner Horvath advised Supervisor of Elections Vicky Oakes, “Please consider this my formal letter of withdrawal for the position of Mayor for the City of St. Augustine election 2022. The timing is not right for me, at this time, to seek this position. I look forward to serving the city in my current commission seat 1 for two additional years from December 2022.”

What did Commissioner Horvath realize in May about “timing” she didn’t already know in January? Or was it simply small-town political reality? Whatever the reason, we will miss what might have been a spirited (albeit awkward) contest between seated commission colleagues.

An interesting aspect of a seated commissioner running for mayor is Florida’s “resign to run” election law: "No officer may qualify as a candidate for another public office, whether state, district, county or municipal, if the terms or any part thereof run concurrently with each other, without resigning from the office he or she presently holds.” 

For Ms. Sikes-Kline, her current term expires on the same day she will – if elected – move to the center chair at the commission table.

Alas, the possibility of dueling commissioners seeking control of the gavel has been scrubbed, leaving – pending the filing deadline later this month – Nancy Sikes-Kline, Tim Miscovich Jr. and Noah Kowieski as candidates for mayor. And unless one of them receives 50% plus one vote in the August primary election, the top two will face each other in November.

The smart money is on Sikes-Kline – November runoff or no runoff – but upsets occur. Just ask the folks who had one too many mint juleps at Churchill Downs on May 7, then willy-nilly plunked down a hundred bucks on 80-1 long shot Rich Strike to win the Kentucky Derby.

You never know what will happen, do you? You just never know.

Steve Cottrell

Steve Cottrell is a former small-town mayor, chamber of commerce president and weekly newspaper editor. Contact him at exnevadacitymayor@gmail.com.

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