City staff abandons plans for new horse stables

Saying that the administrative staff felt there would be more community support for revisiting the existing location of the City-owned horse stables at Riberia Pointe, St Augustine Vice-Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline told one newspaper reporter yesterday that the proposal to move and expand the stables to Eddie Vickers Park is dead, at least for now.

Historic City News reported the results of Wednesday’s informal Lunch ‘n’ Learn meeting where the Marquis-Halback design was presented by Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield and General Services Director Jim Piggott at the Willie Galimore Center in Lincolnville.

The article’s title, Vickers Park horse stable strikes out with residents, says it all.

Burchfield told reporters that he got together with City Manager John Regan early Friday and decided that they’d withdraw their proposal. Sikes-Kline commented that she didn’t think the existing location can be expanded; but that was the only alternative location that she offered.

Historic City News readers attending the Lunch ‘n’ Learn meeting, reported that there was a lot of name calling at that meeting; making it hard to tell who was being truthful and who wasn’t — “with all the accusations being tossed around”.

Gwendolyn Duncan, who grew up in the Lincolnville community, observed that the only attendees in favor of the horse stables were the private carriage owners who would benefit by the City spending the estimated $80,000-$100,000 cost for construction.

“Any alternative the city chooses to keep the carriage horses close to the city center won’t involve the park,” Burchfield said Friday. “It would be more on the Riberia Pointe end — south of the wastewater plant.”