Submitted by Suanne Z. Thamm
Reporter – News Analyst
May 31, 2017 4:30 p.m.
It’s the little things that tend to bug us most over time when they are allowed to fester. For years local residents have complained about unsightly and poorly maintained news racks in Fernandina Beach’s Central Business District. The vast majority of them have been characterized as eyesores on the urban landscape. But perhaps the time is finally ripe for reducing these blemishes.
The problem
The bank of permanent boxes outside the Historic Post Office Building on N. 4th Street remains mostly abandoned and neglected. Others, generally hawking real estate or cars, are scattered along Centre Street. Some of those are maintained; others are not. Often contents spill out onto the street creating an unsightly mess for a storeowner or Good Samaritan to clean up. There has been no standard design and no regulation of placement for these boxes. Absent a city ordinance, any vendor has been able to claim First Amendment protection to place news racks at will on city streets, sometimes chaining them together or to various public fixtures.
History
Over the years as complaints have grown various city officials and commissions have tried to devise a solution to the problem of proliferating news racks. In 1997, the city installed a permanent block of news boxes on the 4th Street side of the Historic Downtown Post Office. Minutes reflect that “if found to be aesthetically pleasing and practical,” the city would mandate these boxes throughout town and that vendors would foot the cost. During a city meeting of department directors the next year work was begun on an ordinance. Nothing was sent to the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) for action.
After a passage of several years, the matter of regulating news racks came up once more before both the Historic District Council (HDC) and the FBCC. During summer and fall of 2005 much staff work was invested in exploring how other cities handled this issue, how news racks could be regulated without infringing on First Amendment rights, costs for standard racks and designated locations.
Then-Code Enforcement Officer Fred Lindes conducted an inventory of existing news racks and boxes in the Central Business District that revealed a total of 94. Of those, only the Florida Times Union, News Leader, Nassau Neighbors, Nassau Record, and USA Today would have been considered newspapers in the true sense of the word. However, newspaper-like publications advertising real estate, cars, etc., were also protected by the First Amendment, much to the surprise of many citizens.
City Attorney Debra Braga, following several meetings with both the HDC and various local news organizations, presented Ordinance 2005-24, short-titled Street Encroachments and News Racks on First Reading to the FBCC at their August 2, 2005 Regular Meeting. Some of the commissioners, who had apparently been approached by News Leader and Times Union managers were reluctant to proceed and sent it back to the HDC for further discussion.
Discussion continued throughout the fall of 2005 in an attempt to resolve differences with publishers over location and cost of the proposed news racks and responsibility for purchasing and maintaining them. Following a long FBCC discussion in October, Braga announced that she had been working productively with the publishers and anticipated bringing the ordinance back for Second Reading in November of that year. But Second Reading never materialized.
In 2006, the FBCC approved a code amendment dealing with right-of-way encroachments that did not address news racks. Commissioners were informed that news racks would be covered by a separate ordinance.
In 2008, another city commission asked that the issue of regulating news racks be addressed once more. City Manager Michael Czymbor reported in February that there had been productive meetings with the news media, downtown business association, HDC, city staff and the city attorney. He anticipated that within 30-45 days a proposed ordinance would be brought to the FBCC for consideration. City Attorney Tammi Bach reported in April that there would be an ordinance for the HDC to consider at its next meeting. In fall 2008 she told the HDC that she had invited Foy Maloy (News Leader), Larry Boatright (Florida Times Union, Nassau Neighbors) and Gil Langley (TDC) to provide feedback on the proposed ordinance.
At the 2010 FBCC strategic planning session, called an Advance, Bach reported that one of her goals for the year was to finalize an ordinance addressing news racks. In July 2010, the HDC in a presentation to the FBCC on the state of Centre Street highlighted the news rack problem and asked for action.
Today
The issue has been resurrected once more in 2017, twenty years after the first steps were taken in an attempt to standardize news racks and their locations downtown. At an HDC meeting held on May 25, 2017, Jeff Kurtz, Executive Director of Fernandina Beach Main Street, relayed what appeared to be positive developments on the news rack front. Work has progressed on standardizing the news racks to match as closely as possible those currently used by the News Leader. There also appears to be consensus on the number of racks to be available in the downtown area and their location. The racks will be paid for and maintained by the vendors, removing any responsibility from city staff.
Because the current proposal calls for a finite number of green news racks, new vendors wanting into the Fernandina Beach downtown market will need to be placed on a waiting list, should an existing vendor decide to leave the market.
Final approval as usual must be done via ordinance approved by the Fernandina Beach City Commission, which may or may not decide that the time has come to “serve this whine.”
Editor’s Note: Suanne Z. Thamm is a native of Chautauqua County, NY, who moved to Fernandina Beach from Alexandria,VA, in 1994. As a long time city resident and city watcher, she provides interesting insight into the many issues that impact our city. We are grateful for Suanne’s many contributions to the Fernandina Observer.
This was something that was worked on when I was at the City, and we could never get it over the finish line. It looks like Jeff and Main Street will bring to fruition what has been discussed for decades. Kudos Main Street!