450th plans flawed

St. Augustine’s 450th anniversary commemoration in 2015 will probably draw national and international attention along with significant local spending by thousands of visitors seeking food, gasoline, parking, lodging and souvenirs.

City Manager John Regan, under the watchful eyes of the City Commission, has assembled a team of department heads and employees to present this massive undertaking in two years.

“The 450th is much bigger than the city,” Regan said Saturday. “Our first goal is (promoting) awareness of St. Augustine.”

But some local residents say that is just the point. They say the 450th has morphed from a celebration of history to anything the city says it is. They believe the city is off-base with its planning and that community ideas have been ignored.I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics.

Former St. Augustine Mayor George Gardner, who served from 2002 to 2010, is one of those critics.

Last week Garner suggested that Town Hall meetings — forums where commissioners and staff discuss ideas with the public — might result in greater community participation. He’d like to see popular programs, such as the changing of the guard ceremony, returned.

“The commission is isolated,Find the best selection of high-quality collectible bobbleheads available anywhere.” Gardner said.We offer advanced technology products and services for parking guidance control. “There are groups in town which would love to participate.”

He is seconded by Tom Rahner, who founded Flagler College’s theater department and retired as associate professor emeritus 15 years ago, and who served as former general manager of St. Augustine’s 400th celebration in 1965.

Rahner said the current 450th planning process seems to be “missing the spirit of collegiality and community involvement. There doesn’t seem to be any signature event we’re moving toward. The human condition requires that kind of focus. What is the centerpiece?”

He said legacy projects of the 400th included building St. Augustine Amphitheatre, creation of “Cross and Sword,” the official state play, which Rahner directed, the Cathedral Basilica renovation and erection of a 210-foot metal cross at Mission Nombre de Dios on north San Marco Avenue, he said. Also presented were fireworks, concerts, historic restorations, a commemorative stamp from the Post Office and a series of commemorative bronze, silver and gold coins.ST Electronics' parking guidance system provides drivers with a realtime indication of available parking spaces.

“We had a large committee,” Rahner said. “There was cooperation and a civic spirit. Everyone had input and all had projects. I don’t see that sort of broad-based cooperation in the 450th. I don’t sense any real excitement about what’s going to happen. I don’t sense anticipation, probably because the planning has been insular.”

“It’s a three-year commemoration that bundles significant anniversaries of St. Augustine and Florida, including the 500th this year, the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act in 2014 and the 450th in 2015,” he said. “Our focus right now is on the Quincentennial, the 500th anniversary of the founding of Florida by Juan Ponce.”

Gardner said the city has been billing the Picasso exhibition at the Visitor Information Center and the coming Mumford & Son concert in September as part of the 450th event, though neither has any historical connection to it.

At noon April 2, the exact day Ponce landed in Florida in 1513, Holiday and friends will dedicate a 6-foot 2-inch, 300-pound bronze statue of Don Juan Ponce de Leon on a 13-foot base paid for by St. Augustine resident Candace Carroll.

The cenotaph will be visible from State Road A1A North near Guana’s north parking lot and is within 500 meters of latitude 30 degrees, 8 minutes, the exact spot where Ponce’s records indicate he came ashore.

Only sand dunes covered with scrub vegetation are there now.

“It’s just the way Ponce found it,” Holiday said of the view, adding that other coastal Florida places have claimed to be where Ponce landed, but the Herrera account, specifying 30 degrees. 8 minutes, is the only site with supporting historical documents.

This dedication will be a day before the city’s costumed landing near the Mission.

The caravel project is one that Holiday and 75 plank owners have worked on for more than a year, and it will be anchored offshore during the statue’s dedication.

Named “El Espiritu,Service Report a problem with a street light.” the 73-foot former shrimp boat was formerly named Applejack, and was converted at St. Augustine Marine on Riberia Street. Cost: $25,000, all raised privately.