Sikes-Kline gets loud with Valdes when he questions condition of memorial

During last week’s St Augustine city commission video conference call, conducted in lieu of traditional public meetings in the Alcazar Room of City Hall, a simple question raised by Commissioner John Valdes concerning the condition of the 1879 Confederate Memorial to be moved, triggered an abrupt response from Nancy Sikes-Kline, leading her at one point to talking over the commissioner.

Valdes, who is two years into his first four-year term, is a licensed general contractor with experience restoring almost 150 historic properties in downtown St Augustine.  Many of those structures have brick and mortar foundations of a similar construction to the 141-year-old artifact erected with charitable donations from the townspeople and the Ladies Memorial Association of St Augustine.

“If you move it and it comes apart, there’s no way to document how to put it back together again,” Valdes explained to the city manager and licensed professional engineer, John P Regan, Sr. after finding out that Regan had not conducted a basic visual inspection of the construction beneath the plaster.

Valdes and Commissioner Roxanne Horvath, a licensed practicing Architect, oppose the move.  Valdes expressed doubts to one Historic City News subscriber that the irreplaceable historic monument, the second oldest of its type, can survive the move without the brick and mortar crumbling.

Valdes explained to the others online with Zoom, that the cement was probably made with ocean water which has a high salt content.  The acid levels commonly discovered were high enough to cause the mortar to dry out and begin crumbling over time.  It was clear from Valdes’ specific questions and Regan’s misleading answers that Regan had not done his homework.  He appeared more interested in moving the cenotaph “out-of-sight and out-of-mind” than he did about doing the job right.

Mayor Tracy Upchurch who is a lawyer and has no training in the construction trades, said, “My sense is we have a mover who understands the political context he is stepping into, that he has extensive experience, and he has expressed that he knows exactly what he’s getting into.”

Whether Upchurch wanted to run interference for Regan since he lead the charge to establish this project an “emergency” and the mayor was one of the three who voted to remove the memorial, was of no consequence to Valdes.

“Unless he’s removed the plaster, mayor, he has no idea exactly what he’s getting into,” Valdes insisted.

That was enough for Sikes-Kline whose reputation as a historic preservationist was wilting away with every contradicting word she uttered.  Being securely ensconced in an undisclosed off-site location, Sikes-Kline, tried to wrestle the attention from Regan and mayor Upchurch.  Commissioner Freeman was being uncharacteristically quiet and not participating in the challenging discussion, rather listening to hear what Valdes had found out.

When Regan did make a comment on the risk and potential cost of such an occurrence, it was clearly an attempt to patronize Valdes and move on.  Regan had been called out on the $75,000 advance non-refundable deposit already paid to the mover, and his unwillingness to investigate the risk to which he was exposing the city taxpayers.

At one point, Valdes said that Regan had just given the New York based mover a “blank check” to charge whatever he wanted if the move fails for any reason.  Regan admitted, “There could be unforeseen circumstances.”

“This is not unforeseen, John,” Valdes responded without blinking an eye. “This is foreseen, happens all the time.”  Regan withdrew, realizing that his showboating was not going to get past Valdes this time.

But as Regan sat quiet and ashamed, Sikes-Kline decided that she was going to have to get the needed approval back on track.  “We have the best experts to move it,” Sikes-Kline exclaimed, starting to get a little loud.  “I do not need a number to move ahead with the information we have right now.”

“We deal with what comes,” Sikes-Kline said when confronted with the city manager’s lack of a plan for additional cost to reconstruct if the monument fails the move. “No one can answer that cost question ahead of time.”

“Yes, you can,” Valdes responded. “You can check it ahead by removing a section of plaster to check the condition of the mortar – this is not rocket science.”

With none of the commissioners who support the move of the obelisk able to cover for Regan’s inept mishandling of his due diligence, Mayor Upchurch asked the city manager to discuss the concerns with the mover.