City to buy marshfront lots
Public space and flood control won the day Monday as the City
Commission voted to purchase two marshfront lots in Davis Shores,
listed for sale at $459,000.
Over 1½ hours Davis Shores residents – most having been flooded
during hurricanes Matthew and Irma – pleaded for commissioners to
support purchasing the property, which Public Works Director Mike
Cullum considers key to correcting flooding conditions over a wide
area of south Davis Shores.
Cullum said a berm (land barrier) on the property “will disburse the
water over hundreds of thousands of wetlands – the intracoastal
waterway.”
But proposal sponsor Vice Mayor Leanna Freeman also pushed hard
for the property’s use as a park. “It is the only neighborhood that I
know of in the city that doesn’t have a neighborhood park,” she said
before speakers in a public comment period agreed.
Debby Leonard, who also bid on the property, told commissioners
she was pursuing her dream to build her own house and is a master
gardener. “I would be happy to work with the city on easements, whatever would be necessary to make this a
possibility.”
City Manager John Regan will get an appraisal and negotiate with the sellers to complete the sale.
January 16 2019
Master of Ragtime
at Grace Church
Bob Milne, master of ragtime and
boogie-woogie piano documented
by the Library of Congress in 2004
and declared to be “a National
Treasure,” will return for an encore
performance at Grace United
Methodist Church’s Music at
Grace Sunday January 27 at 3 pm.
Originally a horn player and
assistant 1st horn in the Rochester
(NY) Philharmonic at age 19, he
retired from horn playing at age 22
to play the piano.
He became a Musical
Ambassador for the United States
for six years, touring widely in
Japan, Okinawa, Hokkaido,
Switzerland, and more.
He plays up to 250 performances
a year across the United States and
world and has played “command
performances” for presidents,
foreign dignitaries, members of
congress, and more.
While he lives in Lapeer, Michigan
he winters in Florida, making this
performance for Music at Grace
possible.
Pigs survive 1st round
in animal code update
City commissioners Monday passed to second reading
and public hearing an animal code update without changing
the weight and number of household pigs as recommended
by the Planning and Zoning Board (PZB).
The plan board had recommended a change to one pig,
not to exceed 50 pounds, among four allowed pets in a
household.
“I’ve researched this since the PZB meeting,” Assistant
City Attorney John Cary told commissioners. “Most
household pigs are over 50 pounds, they can even be over
100 pounds. So the 50 pound limit is probably not
appropriate.”
City Attorney Isabelle Lopez added, “A mature potbellied
pig at maturity is between 90 and 150 pounds.”
Three other changes in the code:
1.
Grazing animals and roosters are limited to Open Land
and Government Use zoning categories
2.
stables are removed as a permitted use in the commercial
low intensity zoning category
3.
fishing can be allowed in Maria Sanchez Lake as state
law preempts prohibiting fishing of salt water fish.
The public will be able to weigh in on the pig question
and other animal code elements in two weeks.
History’s Highlight
Osceola – January 1838
January 31, 1838, sensing the inevitable, Osceola directed his followers to dress him in his best
finery, and he lay back on the blanket strewn floor of his cell at Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and
quietly expired. His remains are buried just outside the fort gate.
Many Floridians to this day believe Osceola should be reinterred in
this state where, as a patriot warrior defending his homeland, he joined
the legendary ranks of Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Geronimo.
Osceola first appeared in 1832, sitting at Chief Micanopy's side at
Payne's Landing as the United States continued negotiations, trying to
move Florida's Indians west of the Mississippi. Osceola was about 35
years old and was immediately recognized by U.S. officers as a force to
reckon with. The Indian agent, Wiley Thompson, called him "bold and
dashing."
Negotiations, skirmishes and frustration would continue on both sides,
breaking into all-out war in 1835 - the Seminole Indian War, which
would stretch to 1842 and become the most costly Indian conflict in
United States history.
Osceola's mind was clear. He would not be moved from his homeland.
He made his point December 28, 1835, in a well-planned and
spectacular pair of incidents which formally started the war. At points 40
miles apart, Seminole forces assassinated the Indian Agent Thompson outside Fort King at Ocala and
massacred a relief force of 105 under U.S. Major Francis L. Dade, on its way to Fort King.
Osceola continued skirmishes on a frustrated US military, fighting its first guerrilla-style war in the dense
subtropics.
October 21, 1837, a weary Osceola and Coa Hadjo, another principal leader of the Seminoles, camped at
Fort Peyton southwest of St. Augustine under a flag of truce to meet with the U.S. commander, Maj. Gen.
Thomas S. Jesup.
They were unaware that General Jesup was no longer recognizing flags of truce.
He was imprisoned in St. Augustine's Castillo (then called Fort Marion) until late November, then
transferred to Fort Moultrie, away from potential influencing of his Seminole followers. There he was
buried with full military honors in a grave outside the military base.
On his marker, military authorities inscribed, "OCEOLA Patriot and Warrior."
Image: Portrait of Osceola, painted by American Artist George Catlin at Fort Moultrie, January
1838.
Excerpt from Osceola, in St. Augustine Bedtime Stories. Click for further information on this
fascinating historic series.
Experts and workshops
planned on vacation rentals
City commissioners want to hear from Tax Collector
Dennis Hollingsworth and an Airbnb lobbyist, study
some white papers on the subject and get community
input as they move toward regulation of the surging
vacation rental market.
Mayor Nancy Shaver said Monday, “I’ve gotten
dozens of emails on the hosting topic from Airbnb
managers. I think it would be helpful to have some kind
of broad discussion. We should make sure we hear from
them.”
Hosting is a requirement for owners or managers to be
on site of vacation rentals.
Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline and Planning and
Zoning Director David Birchim both acknowledged
receiving a letter from an Airbnb lobbyist “offering
ideas regarding clients and registration systems.”
Birchim Monday provided initial research on how
other Florida cities are tackling the vacation rental
surge.
“During my research one of the things that stood out,”
Birchim told commissioners, “the silence was deafening
as cities passed all these ordinances.”
Hollingsworth is tracking rental properties to assure
they are not homestead exempted.
Commission denies red cedar appeal
A tree will fall on Lighthouse Avenue, despite one neighbor’s efforts to save it in an
appeal to the City Commission Monday.
Chad Smith was not disputing a Planning and Zoning Board (PZB) decision to
allow removal of 25 trees on private property at 61 Lighthouse Avenue but appealed
removal of that 21-inch diameter southern red cedar tree which stands in the city right
of way.
Both commissioners Roxanne Horvath, an architect, and John Valdes, a contractor,
noted a slight shift in the driveway plan for the property could save the cedar, but
commissioners acknowledged extensive (PZB) discussions with the property owners
and could find no legal basis to overturn its decision.
Historian to report on 1964 Movement project
Historian Scott Grant, who is developing a documentary on the events of the St. Augustine
Civil Rights Movement of 1964 - including the largest mass arrest of Rabbis in U.S. history -
will be the guest speaker at the January 23 meeting of the St. Augustine Jewish Historical
Society.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 4:30 pm at the Main Branch of the St. Johns County
Public Library.
Grant holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a Law Degree from
Rutgers University. He’ll describe his progress on his project and what has driven him to tell
the much under-told story of the Rabbis who came to the First Coast in support of the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Wendlers ordered to pay
court costs in lengthy suit
Scott and Donna Wendler have been ordered to pay
$64,333.78 in court costs, “to put an end to the litigation”
of a decade long lawsuit, City Attorney Isabelle Lopez
told commissioners Monday.
The city won the suit in which the Wendlers sued the
city for failing to compensate them for lost income after
denying demolition of eight properties to build a boutique
hotel. The court ruled, however, the city could not
recover attorneys’ fees.
