ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — With just 80 days to go before the annual Nights of Lights celebration in St. Augustine, the St. Johns County Board of Commissioners and the City of St. Augustine are still in budget talks.
Back in June, Action News Jax told you how the city of St. Augustine asked for an additional 1 million dollars from the St. John’s County Tourism Development Council for this year’s celebration. That was in addition to the $200,000 they get annually.
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However, the St. Johns County Tourism Development Council (TDC) voted to recommend $850,000 for the event.
During today’s workshop, St. Augustine city manager David Birchim laid out his proposed changes for the upcoming Nights of Lights, including a plan to add median barricades for safety.
“We learned our lesson from New Orleans,” said Birchim. “It doesn’t look like much, but that will prevent a car from driving through that barrier.”
However, because Nights of Lights are less than 3 months away, Birchim says the Barricades would have to be rented this year if approved. Birchim noted that most of the funding they are requesting from the TDC would go towards shuttling and bathrooms. However, the county’s legal counsel shared some of their concerns with those aspirations.
“Some of the things that came to my attention that I believe might not fall under TDC is for example the bathrooms,” said Assistant County Attorney Carly Meek. “The portable bathrooms, you know, I think that has to be used for specific tourist purposes and not the general public at large.”
The county will vote on the budget for Nights of Lights at the next county commission meeting on September 2nd.
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