Letter: My view from the port

Dear Editor:

The flurry of intended Port spending of a token $400K for dredging Porpoise Point and dredging the inlet is out with the tide.

St. Johns County engineers Joe Stephenson and Andrew Ames presented the news that an agreement has been signed between the South Ponte Vedra group and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The county and massive federal funds will accomplish the tasks of dredging the channel entrance, dredging Porpoise Point, and re-nourishing St Augustine Beach with quality sand.

It’s about a $18M project. Work starts hopefully December 2011 or January 2012.

We have $1.7million in the treasury. We confirmed the millage at .0614, and approved a budget for $380K for next year.

The loyalties of this Commissioner were questioned:

On Salty Southeast Cruisers Net ( http://cruisersnet.net ) there are statements about perils and dangers of our channel entrance. A careless read might falsely attribute them to me.

This Commissioner regularly informs the major on-line national cruising guides of current conditions in our waterways. I try to inform with accuracy and brevity for continued boater safety, knowing that boating revenues are an important component to our economy.

If the Editor of North Carolina based Salty Southeast Cruisers Net, Claiborne Young, is more than cautionary; here’s why. Young took great interest, and two days from his life, to attend the public hearing for the City’s pilot program; held in the Alcazar room on June 30.

He wrote ahead and informed the City that he’d be here. The City asked him to be the first speaker. He is eloquent, methodical and informative. When the three-minute beep sounded, mid-sentence, he asked, was that it? Southern hospitality did not prevail. Our loss — many times over.

FWC Lt. Zukowski recapped the offshore madness of the latest personal flotation device, a picnic cooler, and reports at Matanzas good redfish and flounder. Often flounder are everywhere.

Jay Bliss, USCG Licensed Captain
St Augustine Port Commissioner Seat 5