City considers $8,000 relocation cost for lions

Among the nine items included in the consent agenda for the regular meeting of the St. Augustine City Commission Monday night, will be consideration and authorization of funding to return the lion statues to their proper home.

An estimated $8,000 will be spent to relocate the lions from the city warehouse to the western end of the Bridge of Lions.

The lion statues were a gift to the city from Dr. Andrew Anderson; a native of St. Augustine who became a close friend of Henry Flagler and served as the city’s mayor in 1886.

For more than 80 years, the lions have stood guard over the entrance to Anastasia Island and are most certainly among the most famous and most photographed landmarks in St. Augustine.

Although the Department of Transportation has until June to finish landscape renovation of the park areas, the lions are expected to be relocated sometime this spring.