St. Augustine votes to move monument

Confederate memorial to leave downtown

ST. AUGUSTINE — After sitting through about an hour of passionate pleas, threats of harassment and promises of being voted out of office, three St. Augustine commissioners stuck with their decision Monday to move the Confederate memorial obelisk from downtown.

The Commission voted 3-2 at the regular meeting to accept the offer of Randy Ringhaver to move the memorial to property he owns in the western part of the county — Trout Creek Fish Camp. The monument is expected to be kept in a park-like setting with proper lighting, sidewalks and benches.

Despite the fact that the commissioners and most city staff participated via video conference, the meeting was contentious during the public comment period.

Citizens took up about an hour of the beginning of the meeting, mostly voicing their extreme displeasure with the concept of moving the Confederate monument from its current position in the Plaza de la Constitucion.

Several who objected screamed at commissioners and others promised that it would take violence to stop them from protecting the current placement of the monument.

Several blamed the initial decision to move the obelisk on the Rev. Ron Rawls, calling him a Communist or a Marxist or insinuating that he was a domestic terrorist.

Rawls has led protests to remove the monument and hasn’t been any more gentle in his objections to its current place of honor. In 2018, he led a protest during the Nights of Lights opening ceremony, saying: “We went to disrupt and we disrupted.”

There were also serious concerns about the ability to safely move the obelisk, which has been in place for about 140 years. Even Commissioner John Valdes pointed out that it was one of the reasons he didn’t want the memorial moved.

There were a couple of speakers who thanked the commissioners who voted to remove the monument. And four email comments were filed in support of that action. Another 11 emails were received that advocated keeping the obelisk where it is.

In the end, Mayor Tracy Upchurch and Commissioners Nancy Sikes-Kline and Leanna Freeman maintained their belief that removing the monument was the right decision and voted to go with Ringhaver’s offer. Valdes and Commissioner Roxanne Horvath continued to hold the position that the monument should not be moved and, therefore, voted against the offer.

The Ringhaver deal was endorsed by City Manager John Regan, who said the local business leader has the means and desire to properly care for the monument and is willing to provide public access to it.

Even with such an offer, the city is expected to pay $236,000 for the relocation of the monument.

Regan said the city’s first choice was to move the obelisk to a national cemetery such as the one in the city but was denied. That made the Ringhaver offer ever more important because no other offer in the private sector was nearly as appealing, Regan added.

“I do feel this is a very generous offer by Mr. Ringhaver,” Sikes-Kline said. “I feel like (the monument) would be in good hands.

“He would care lovingly for it and provide access that we asked for.”

Actually all of the commissioners seemed to appreciate Ringhaver’s offer, but not all of them wanted to see any relocation.

“I think it’s the second best place (for the monument),” Valdes said. “The best place is where it is now.”

Added Horvath: “I agree with John, that’s the second-best location. I really would like to make the request for one of the three of you to vote with John and I and not move this monument.”