Vickers Park horse stable strikes out with residents
Pledging to get the unpopular item on the City Commission agenda for approval at the June 10th commission meeting, Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield met with Lincolnville residents and business owners yesterday; informing them that, no later than the June 24th meeting, construction of horse stables could get the “go ahead” needed to move forward.
Historic City News reader and Lincolnville advocate Gwendolyn Duncan, attended the informal Lunch ‘n’ Learn meeting where the Marquis-Halback design was presented to several dozen citizens eager to express their dissatisfaction.
“Of about 50-60 attendees, the only persons in the room in favor of the horse stables were the private carriage owners,” Duncan reported to Historic City News. “All the citizens who were present were in opposition to the horse stables being relocated to the Little Links.”
At issue is relocation of city-owned paddock facilities located at Riberia Pointe; which Burchfield has described as “vastly undersized for the number of horses that are presently stabled there”.
Jeremy Marquis, Vice President of Marquis Halback, Inc., has assisted in the preliminary design of the future stables and made an initial presentation to the city commission at their February 25, 2013 regular meeting. Burchfield, in a memorandum to City Manager John Regan, indicated that there are talks of possible development of the current site.
The cost to the City of building the new facility, according to the Marquis-Halback design, is approaching $100,000. During the Lunch ‘n’ Learn, it was revealed that the plans are for the City to finance the cost of the construction — in return, the City will collect rent from the carriage operators. Burchfield says the payback could be 5-years, or, it could be 10-years; he was not specific.
Duncan observed that the sentiments of the crowd were that the City has no business financing a place for private businesses to operate. “If they do it for one, they need to do it for all,” Duncan, who is a leader in one group attempting to organize a Civil Rights Museum, wrote. “We could use $100,000 to finance our Civil Rights Museum initiative.”
Recreational use of what some local residents refer to as “the Little Links”, the one-time site of a 9-hole public golf course, has been sporadic, at best. The property was also used as a city dump. The land area is officially known as “Eddie Vickers Park”, and was supposed to be maintained as a baseball field and public park, south of the Willie Galimore Center.
The Lincolnville community says this is another attempt by the City of St Augustine to take away what little recreational area they have left. Last year, the City reapportioned a section of the park for use as a Community Garden. Another section of the park is used, with City approval, as a weekly Farmers Market; where vendors install pop-up tents and retail displays.
“If the City of St Augustine wants to finance something, put some new playground equipment down there, a tennis court, bleachers, and make a better baseball diamond for little league and adult softball games,” Duncan said. “That will benefit the community at the Community Park.”
The carriage operators, who would be the beneficiaries of the new construction and relocation, clearly outnumbered by those in opposition to this use of public property and funds, engaged in some hostile exchanges with residents — some of whom believe that the City of St Augustine is trying to destroy the history of the African American Culture by destroying their old landmarks.
“There was a lot of name calling at that meeting,” Duncan recalled. “One could not tell who was being truthful and who wasn’t — with all the accusations being tossed around.”
After the meeting recess, some of the attendees lingered on outside the Galimore Center still discussing the issues raised. When asked what she took away from yesterday’s meeting, Duncan reported, “It behooves everyone present Wednesday, to make their voices heard in opposition to this matter, by attending the June meetings of the City Commission and bombarding the Commissioners mail boxes with letters in opposition to this venture.”
Agendas for the June 10th and June 24th meetings of the St Augustine City Commission have not yet been released to the media. Historic City News will report further when this item is scheduled to be heard.
Photo credits: © 2013 Historic City News contributed photograph by Shirley Williams-Collins
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