Everywhere you read “Mississippi”, substitute “City of St Augustine”.

In the news today, Historic City News finds the nation’s smallest state taking a big stand for its taxpayers against worthless “creative” marketers whose designs and work product are difficult to understand, send an obscure message, and turn out to be ineffective.

Nancy E. Shaver, Mayor
City of St Augustine, FL

Dear Historic City News readers:

It’s no secret that we are a popular place and getting around in our City is often a challenge.  Whether it’s the couple of million vacation visitors we have every year, or you and I going grocery shopping, or the many folks from St. Johns County and Jacksonville who come here for the day or the evening or for one of our many events–it’s a lot of people in cars—likely six million annually—and growing.

In the 1990’s, I was licensed by the South Carolina Board of Financial Institutions to operate a small loan company. One of my mentors who had been making loans in Columbia for many years offered me some advice at a Christmas party one year — she told me if I wanted to keep a profitable loan portfolio, avoid loans to the “P’s”.

In an editorial titled, “Right, wrong and the great in between” that appeared in the Sunday March 13, 2016 edition of The St Augustine Record, editorial page editor, Jim Sutton, reveals some things I wish he hadn’t. I hope they are not completely true, because, if they are, our community is not being well served.

Judy Smith
St Augustine, FL

Dear Editor:

My mother-in-law lives in a Senior Community; Southern Villas Apartments, located at 52 Sunrise Boulevard off SR-207.

When Historic City News readers think of “perks”, they think of rewards paid in private businesses to executives who have earned them by exceeding profits or some other measurable goal. In government, taxpayers expect that if perks for staff and elected officials exist at all, they are limited to de minimis conveniences like a parking space closer to the building, or a key to an executive restroom.