ARI, a locally grown 501C3 nonprofit, is focused on archaeological and historic sites. They do field work and have a back office lab for analytical support. They do research and offer educational opportunities to students and volunteers. ARI made a very impressive discovery in the Aucilla sinks that claims to be one of the oldest human artifacts in North America c. 14,000 years old. As a nonprofit ARI receive financial support from grants and tax deductible donations and are supposed to be non-political as admitted by the ARI Chairman.
However, at the county commission meeting March 5th they used the credibility of their nonprofit and academic credentials to present biased information against the proposed Toll Road.
M-Cores already have this data from state and national registries. (See the M-Cores interactive map on their website) The Toll Road statute specifies that M-Cores must by law perform impact studies on environment, historical sites, archeological sites and cemeteries. They are required to do physical examinations and evaluations along any route. They must coordinate and work with associated state agencies responsible for archaeological and historic sites. Even during construction they will stop to evaluate a newly discovered site making accommodations as necessary.
ARI’s presentation provided misleading graphical slides and statements that were politically biased toward their position of no toll road or not in Jefferson County. Here are the issues in the presentation.
• PhD academics make their living by presenting data to support their position. The power point had several maps that overlaid archeological sites, historical sites and cemeteries. These sites were shown as different colored dots. I cannot take issue with the number of dots or their location.
• The objectionable element is that the dots were all the same size and made no distinction between site importance/value, site relative size or distance between sites. Important sites show human settlement and/or significant activity. It’s not difficult to find some kind of artifact or old building anywhere across Jefferson County and the Panhandle.
• Wetlands were shown in green. Statements were made that these are the recharge for the Florida aquifer and that Jefferson County is unique in importance to the recharge. Not all wetlands are recharge areas and Jefferson is only one portion of the total land area over the aquifer. In a previous ‘Letter to the Editor’ I pointed out that what is needed to protect the aquifer is to manage the drawdown from the aquifer via meters so all water management districts can provide some managed control. The threats come from the likes of big water consumers such as Nestle and east coast counties like Duval.
• An economic argument was made for archeological and historic tourism using St. Augustine as an example, saying hundreds of millions of dollars are involved. Jefferson doesn’t have a Spanish fort build on the Atlantic in the 1500’s within a city like St. Augustine. Letchworth-Love mound on highway 90 is what we have as a publicly accessible archeological attraction.
• Florida statute 872 was quoted as protection for cemeteries and grave sites with various levels of felony for disturbing graves. This can easily happen without the land owner even knowing that it has. For example, at the end of Dills Road there is an African American cemetery with related family members who still live in the area. Within the last few years it has been cut nearly in half by a fence.
• A coastline graphic displaying the maximum surge from a Cat-5 hurricane was shown with follow-up statement that any road would have to take the high ground so that means a toll road should stop in Madison County. This does not match recent experience. Hurricane Michael made landfall October 10, 2018. It had a very tight path with massive devastation to homes and property as well as pine forests. Only Highway 98 was damaged in a few places that were within feet of the gulf. Highways further inland from the gulf had debris but no hurricane damage to prevent their use.
As individuals ARI board members and scholars are entitled to express their opinion; however, using the stature or ARI and assumed virtue of academia together with the presentation issues just feels wrong.
Remember, a key reason for the toll road is to address environmental, economic and transportation issues from population growth that will impact future generations of Floridians including Jefferson County. This Toll Road is a big opportunity to improve lives. Change will happen it is better to embrace it and make it work for everyone.
Sincerely,
Phil Calandra