[0:01] [Music] welcome to Green Cove Springs where

[0:08] history meets the present and looks forward to the

[0:11] [Music] future the area that would become Green

[0:16] Cove Springs has a unique history no other place in Florida has

[0:21] had an uninterrupted run of 250 years surviving the civil war three seminal

[0:27] Wars and under the rules of both Charles II of Spain and King George III of

[0:33] Britain beginning as a Lumber Town of White Sulfur Springs the town was

[0:37] renamed Green Cove Springs in 1866 in 1871 Green Cove Springs was

[0:44] selected as the new county seat and on November 2nd 1874 it officially became

[0:50] an incorporated city the city's name originates from

[0:55] three physical characteristics green refers to Perennial green vegetation

[1:00] characterized by its treescape and foilage Cove refers to Abend in the St

[1:05] John's river creating a safe area for moing of boats during inclement weather

[1:10] periods Springs refers to the natural spring one of 600 in Florida originating

[1:16] from the Floridan aquafer Green Cove uh was sort of out in the middle of nowhere

[1:22] um when Florida uh I should say when uh the Spanish territory known as East

[1:27] Florida was purchased by the United States

[1:30] 1821 uh this place really had a had several names one of which was white

[1:36] White Sulfur Springs uh etc etc but anyway the the town got its uh

[1:42] Beginnings when Timber Cutters from the New England area we're down here looking

[1:47] for uh live oak trees to send back to New New England as part of the ship

[1:52] building process and then down through the years uh you know the spring was

[1:56] always sort of the the common uh of this place called White sulfer

[2:02] Springs and then about uh I don't know it was shortly after the Civil War that

[2:07] the name the place name changed from White Sulfur Springs to Green Cove

[2:11] Springs and a lot of people don't realize it but that name was actually

[2:14] given by two people u a brother and a sister Sarah Palmer and uh Darius Ferris

[2:24] you've probably heard of Ferris Street and Palmer Street here in Green Cove uh

[2:28] they were they were entrepreneurs they uh they were developing u a little

[2:33] village called mport in those days and they came down here and bought 840 acres

[2:38] and they started uh selling property here and that's how Green Cove sort of

[2:42] got it

[2:45] start nestled along the St John's river the city quickly became a popular

[2:50] destination for those seeking the healing powers of its natural

[2:55] spring early settlers were drawn to the area by the promise of health and

[2:59] Prosperity the spring known for its mineral Rich Waters became a central hub

[3:04] for the community giving the city its name and fostering growth we have to

[3:09] recognize that we are right here one of the higher points in Clay County and in

[3:16] some respects we're EXT rather High when it comes to

[3:22] Florida so first of all it's High Ground fresh water mild climate hunt

[3:29] fish forage so if we go back 10,000 years to the T ukan

[3:35] people and we look at who came here in that day and time to hunt to fish to

[3:41] forage that fresh water mild climate you can build your shelter you can take care

[3:48] of yourself you can survive quite

[3:53] well during the late 1800s the city experienced great Prosperity as

[3:58] evidenced by the large number and quality of hotels constructed near the

[4:03] spring and surrounding area after uh Palmer and Ferris started

[4:09] selling property here and you had businesses started being built homes

[4:13] built and so forth uh you had people moving into the area and as a result of

[4:18] that it was just the normal uh development of of business activities

[4:23] and anywhere there's money to be made you're going to have people that will

[4:26] invest and after the Civil War a number of uh investors from the north uh came

[4:33] here bought property and started to either selling property or in this case

[4:38] building hotels and so forth and of course with uh the St John's river right

[4:43] here at our doorstep you had a lot of Steamboat traffic Up and Down the River

[4:48] so it was very uh it was very easy to get to Green Cove Springs uh on one of

[4:53] the many uh River or Oceano vessels that plowed up and down the St John's river

[4:59] every day and as a result of that uh these investors saw the opportunity

[5:03] maybe to come in here and uh build some hotels and they

[5:07] did during the I want to say at the turn of the century of 1900 uh we have

[5:13] cataloged 17 different hotels uh Cottages or boarding houses that were

[5:19] here in Green Cove Springs uh the largest of which was the claron hotel

[5:24] that was built 1870 1871 right AC well where the city hall is out and uh it it

[5:32] uh it featured 200 rooms with hot and cold running water and they had a Dynamo

[5:38] to generate direct electric current and they had uh they had electric lights if

[5:45] you will in that hotel uh starting in about 1874 and of course it was in

[5:50] business for about 30 years as I recall it burned in

[5:55] 1900 Hotel eror was probably has been mislabeled because it's I think it

[6:00] should have been called the destination era it was a hotel area and there was

[6:04] the Clariton Hotel was the one that was where City Hall is today now there St

[6:11] Elmo was walking distance to this to the spring uh the river side the Union uh

[6:17] the Mohawk and so on the most notable one was the actual destination of

[6:22] Magnolia or sometimes referred to as Magnolia Springs it was a destination

[6:27] place it was the absolute First Resort in the State of

[6:32] Florida and it was modeled after stuff that was built up in New England area by

[6:37] very high Finance folks so we were a destination Magnolia Hotel actually had

[6:44] a nine course golf course there because of the city's prominence

[6:50] it earned recognition as the Saratoga of the South the parler city and watering

[6:55] hole for the rich Saratoga of the South is probably one of our no notable

[7:00] marketing things in marketing people want to relate with something and people

[7:05] up north had a hard time relating with Florida they just didn't get it they

[7:12] couldn't get their head around it but people in New York City knew that they

[7:16] could get on a vessel on a Friday afternoon and they could go up the

[7:22] Hudson they could get in a hotel they could put their hair down they can bet

[7:28] on the ponies and they could spend the weekend and Sunday evening they can get

[7:32] on a vessel and come back to New York City and they can go down to a place

[7:37] called Wall Street and make some money and then Friday afternoon they could get

[7:41] on a boat and they could go up River to Saratoga

[7:46] Springs and they could bet on the ponies and they could put their hair down and

[7:50] they could do what they want and then they could come back to New York City

[7:54] and they could repeat it so as people realized what they could do off the

[7:58] Hudson all we had to do is say Green Cove Springs is

[8:03] Saratoga of the South tourists and visitors journeyed

[8:08] along the St John's river from Jacksonville by Riverbats bearing names

[8:12] like the Florence the magnolia the manatee and the May Garner the absolute

[8:18] most noted of all would have been the May Garner and the May Garner was was

[8:23] christened by the the the captain's uh daughter and they had to place right

[8:29] there off of U uh right off the river and the most noted one that came and all

[8:34] the way into the end of The Next Century the May Garner kept on kept on coming

[8:40] here it was quote the Green Cove boat in 1883 the ladies Village

[8:47] Improvement Association of Green Cove Springs Incorporated to promote

[8:51] beautification efforts within the city and it later evolved into becoming the

[8:55] first Federated Women's Club of Florida The Village Improvement Association

[9:01] still exists and operates from the building dedicated in

[9:05] 1915 I'm laran studs and I've lived in green cup springs for about 35 years um

[9:11] and I am currently the president of of the viia um it's actually the village

[9:15] Improvement Association um it's the oldest Women's Club in Florida and we're

[9:19] very proud of that well the oldest minutes we have for meetings of the viia

[9:24] um would have been in April of 1888 well the mission was always just to clean

[9:30] started off just to make the town better just to make the town prettier and to

[9:34] then get more involved they gradually went we were responsible for starting

[9:38] the first kindergarten in this area and then also the first Library even in Clay

[9:43] County started right here and that was from the women in the village

[9:46] Improvement Association because that's after they got everything cleaned up and

[9:50] pretty like they wanted it then they moved on to more service projects and

[9:53] they actually funded a lot of it back then by having tea parties um they would

[9:58] have big Gallas and stuff with the with tees and serving tea parties and I just

[10:02] think it's neat that we still do a lot of that today um not they're fundraisers

[10:06] for us but we do them because it's a historical thing to do back then that

[10:11] was what you did in order to raise money the hotel era rapidly declined as

[10:17] railroads took tourists to Beyond Green Cove Springs to flagler's jewels in St

[10:22] Augustine Miami and Tampa the hotels mostly wooden

[10:27] structures were no longer so attract active as they deteriorated or

[10:32] burned a series of cold Winters particularly 1895 didn't help and if

[10:38] there was any hope in a Revival World War I put an end to any future

[10:43] festivities by 196 there were a few hotels left in the whole country by the

[10:49] Great Depression even these struggled all these were wooden hotels

[10:55] and uh the claron is a good example of what happens when you have a fire is

[10:59] completely destroyed and uh down through the years with uh the reduced uh need

[11:05] for hotels uh they became dilapidated needing repair and so forth and they

[11:11] they almost Disappear by 1930 1940 if you will and once again that that hotel

[11:18] era came and went not only here but you know in other places as well now

[11:23] remember also our chief competitor over on the east coast here is St Augustine

[11:28] and you had a guy named comes through and he's going to build

[11:31] another railroad uh down the east coast along the beach area and he does push it

[11:36] all the way out to Key West the decline was mainly because people wanted

[11:40] something more we were a

[11:43] destination but there was something more upu River down south today the River

[11:49] Park in bed and breakfast is the last remaining connection to the hotel

[11:55] era the late 1800s also saw the birth of Augusta pH

[11:59] Savage austo was an American sculptor associated with the Harlem Renaissance a

[12:05] pivotal cultural movement that celebrated African-American art and

[12:09] literature despite facing racism Savage fought to secure a place for

[12:14] African-American women in the art World in honor of Augusta Savage's

[12:19] Legacy the City established the Augusta Savage Museum and mentoring Center on

[12:24] the site of the Old Dunbar High School library in 2021

[12:29] it is now the creative heart of Green Cove Springs with classes ranging from

[12:33] art and dance to reading and math tutoring we have uh several different

[12:38] ways that we try to enhance and support uh Arts uh green Co Springs thanks to

[12:43] you know uh the Augusta Savage and her um uh accomplishments as a world famous

[12:50] sculpture artist uh has kind of really been the torch that has inspired so much

[12:58] uh training in the Arts and and our mentoring centers that we already

[13:02] discussed that was a a challenging thing for us to find the money to do to to

[13:07] rehabilitate and build that place and find the purpose for what it was going

[13:12] to be and there was a lot of things the community wanted it to be from like you

[13:15] know whether it's the dance instruction the museum the mentoring and and it's

[13:21] exceeded my expectations so I'm really glad that we invested in that a lot of

[13:26] young kids go through and they get to appreciate and get quality instruction

[13:30] whether it's in the art the the dancing the history Finance like they can learn

[13:35] a lot of different uh a lot of different

[13:40] things as the years passed Green Cove Springs evolved embracing new Industries

[13:45] and Technologies the arrival of the railroad

[13:50] and the growth of local businesses transformed our small City into a

[13:54] thriving Community well people had already

[13:58] realized they wanted they can move farther they could get into the interior

[14:03] now the thing is they want to do it faster Henry Flagler came here in

[14:07] honeymoon with one of his wives but what he had left St James Hotel earlier he

[14:13] came to Green Cove now this is standard oil Henry

[14:18] Flagler a board member that's taking a leave of absence to go look at this new

[14:24] found territory a new area and he just simply says

[14:29] it moves too slow he got on a vessel went right across to Hallow's Cove or

[14:34] down to K's Cove or maybe down in P colada where he went I don't really

[14:40] specifically recall but he got on a Narrow Gauge Rail and he went over to St

[14:44] Augustine and as Florida history tells us from that point Florida history

[14:51] changed Green Cove Springs played its part in significant historical events

[14:58] our city had the first first Trolley system in the state providing

[15:01] transportation for Commodities and also residents and visitors with their

[15:05] luggage from the riverbank Piers to the various lodging accommodations in the

[15:09] city it wasn't really a trolley system uh to speak of only half of it was

[15:14] because there was a they had laid rails from the pier at the foot of walut

[15:20] street at the River's Edge and they came all the way up to the central business

[15:25] district just a block from here and that's where it terminated but remember

[15:28] you had people that were coming to Green Cove and they would get off at the train

[15:32] and then they they were expected to walk or carry their bags this far no so what

[15:37] happens is you had several entrepreneurs that would uh that established a uh a

[15:43] wagon and pickup system to where they would take you from the railroad on on a

[15:48] wagon and it was a they had it rigged up with a su and a top and all that and

[15:53] take you right down to the hotel The Trolley system was probably

[15:57] the greatest hosting thing perhaps many of us my wife and I being

[16:03] amongst the group do not need a coner at a

[16:07] hotel but I know the few times that we've traveled to upscale places a coner

[16:12] is very nice to have and you want to have your things taken care of at your

[16:18] wishes so when BT Barnum came through here of Barnum Bailey Circus when BT

[16:24] Barman came through here and saw just how things were handled from the time

[16:29] you got off the vessel somebody was there to accommodate you if you wanted

[16:33] to go from one place to another and it was was more than the short walk there

[16:37] were accommodations that also provided

[16:40] opportunity for local folks to be to set a good Benchmark for the service

[16:46] industry so uh that put us that put us in the

[16:51] category of being a parlor city of the South um or as BT Barnum would say

[16:59] sometimes as I understand it came from BT barning the watering hole for the

[17:06] wealthy during World War II the city became home to a naval air station which

[17:11] brought New Opportunities and challenges Benjamin Lee field was a

[17:17] naval air training field designed to train Pilots for landing operations on

[17:21] aircraft carriers during World War II the facility was later renamed Naval Air

[17:27] Station Green Cove Springs and later redesignated as a naval auxiliary

[17:32] station associated with the Naval Air Station Jacksonville complex during this

[17:37] period the government expanded the complex with construction of 13 concrete

[17:42] peers serving as the birthing place for over 600 ships placed in reserve status

[17:48] and referred to as the world's largest mothball fleet mball Fleet was the

[17:54] largest fleet mball Fleet in the country the Navy brought 734 ships into Green

[18:02] Cove Springs some said it was a Scourge because the city did not have

[18:09] any idea the Navy was going to come here

[18:14] from September of 1945 and December of

[18:20] 1945 the Navy brought in 300 plus

[18:25] warships still pulling man and most of the Destroyer

[18:30] escorts all carried at least 250 men so you can do the

[18:37] math by the end of December of 1945 Green coold Springs became one of the

[18:44] most populated cities in the state of Florida

[18:48] when no shift by the end of December they had another 60,000 Sailors living

[18:54] in Greeno the USS Harmon was the first ship in the United States

[19:01] to be named after an africanamerican as far as the Destroyer

[19:05] escorts now there's only two left in the left now one is the USS

[19:12] Slater that's in no New York and the other is the USS Stewart

[19:19] it's in Seawolf Park Texas that was the last of De LST

[19:27] 325 it is still operational and it's in Jefferson bille

[19:33] Indiana it runs cruises up the Ohio to New York or down to Mississippi to New

[19:39] Orleans they do this several times a year but it's still an active ship and

[19:44] it's also a museum cuz that's where the ship was built the city purchased the

[19:50] facility from the federal government then later sold it to the J Lewis

[19:53] Reynolds Corporation now known as Reynolds Park

[19:58] they came to the city in 1961 said they were going to close it they said it

[20:04] would take one to three years to

[20:08] close by June of 1962 the base was completely

[20:14] closed and the last thing they closed was a golf course that was the last

[20:21] thing Green Cove Springs was also home to Gustafson Farm owned and operated by

[20:27] Frank and Agnes Casta son their family Dairy operation began

[20:32] in 1908 within the city and earned recognition as mama and papa Gus they

[20:38] started delivery of milk products to the local hotels supplied from one cow named

[20:44] Buttercup after we got the roads all cleaned up then um the gustavson then

[20:49] when they started their dairies you know that right back here um they also had

[20:54] the cows Buttercup was their first cow and so even though the the viia and the

[20:59] gustavson had a good relationship along with the cows came

[21:03] the Cow Patties and so they wanted that cleaned up too so that was another

[21:08] project that we had and then the gapsin moved their their cows out to another

[21:12] location but they still live there and still had a good

[21:16] relationship during the 1960s and 1970s green Co Springs earned the nickname

[21:21] little Detroit because of the cluster of automobile dealerships along

[21:26] us7 these dealers ships were largely established by Justin Pierce reels who

[21:32] opened the first Ford dealership in the State of Florida this Automotive

[21:36] presence provided an economic identity for Green Cove Springs during that time

[21:41] little Detroit was a uh a moniker if you will that the car dealers got together

[21:47] in the 60s and basically uh banded together and they decided they would

[21:51] call themselves little Detroit uh and increase automobile sales here in Green

[21:57] Cove as to going into Jacksonville and buying a car St Augustine poac car or

[22:02] Lake City and that effort was very successful up down through the uh the

[22:06] 70s if you will and I want to say there was probably six or eight car

[22:10] dealerships all the majors Ford Buick Cadillac uh Chevrolet Ford and so forth

[22:17] and they were they were known if you want to buy an automobile at a

[22:20] reasonable price come to Little Detroit so once again they did well to back up a

[22:25] second one of the first motorc car dealerships in the State of Florida was

[22:31] just a block from here over the because stavon house is over the next block and

[22:36] uh there's a vacant lot there now and that was gustavis and Motor Company I

[22:40] can remember that while the city has grown and thrived over the years its

[22:44] true heart lies in the memories of those who have lived and worked here well I

[22:48] grew up here in greenco Springs my mother originated from uh Georgia my dad

[22:54] lived here um my great grandmother my great great grandmother and my great

[22:59] great grandmother all from um greenco Springs

[23:05] I remember as a little girl walking the streets of Green Cove and a lot of the

[23:09] streets was not paved there was very few streets that were paved I remember

[23:14] walking in the hot sand like if though you were walking on the beach I used to

[23:18] love to be barefooted and I would walk in the sand um going to other relatives

[23:24] home and uh friends home lot of fun remember

[23:29] about of fun my family's been here since the the ' 50s and so just going to

[23:35] school and living around here for all these years um I came back from college

[23:40] to start opening businesses in Green Cove and we just grew to love the

[23:45] community and then the history and the more families that we met here that have

[23:49] been here for Generations the more our passion grew for the area and and we

[23:56] just became so incredibly invested I came to Green Coast Springs to pursue my

[24:02] uh my personal U and professional uh life and education by coaching and

[24:08] teaching well the Bible says in Psalms it says that if you delight

[24:13] yourself in the Lord he give you secret desires of your heart so my secret

[24:17] desire was to play pro football I wasn't go to go to teach and coach and uh I got

[24:23] hurt so I wasn't going to take their operation so I tell them I said look I'm

[24:27] I'm through I'm going home so when I came

[24:30] home I got this phone call from Green Co Springs and they said we'd like for you

[24:36] to come down to interview for a teaching job I was the first African-American in

[24:40] a in a white school in the state of Florida I was the first African-American

[24:45] Recreation director and over the times I had lots and lots I taught generations

[24:51] of kids the mama the daddy the grandom and everybody else and uh you know I

[24:57] don't think I ever had a a a a somebody that didn't like you and when I first

[25:02] come your kids didn't have a way home and I and for them to play sports I took

[25:07] them home I took everybody home every day so I'd like to leave that that

[25:12] school with 35 or 40 kids on the back of my truck I wore out three trucks then

[25:18] you know we went on to start coaching well that year we didn't have a great

[25:21] football team we had a lot of young kids and it

[25:25] was like we one and one one and one and seven we lost

[25:31] seven but then when we got ready to go pay Lake

[25:34] Butler uh we uh we went on over there and when I got to leg Butler they said

[25:40] uh where's the coach I said I'm back here he said let the boys come on in so

[25:46] the boys walked on in and I got ready to walk in he said I'm going to use another

[25:51] word he said where you going I said I'm I'm the coach he said

[25:57] boy you must be crazy they ain't got no black people coaching no no white school

[26:01] in Florida and so the parents heard him and the boys are standing right there

[26:06] and they got mad so the parents said something to him and then he said ma'am

[26:11] I hadn't heard of that said I'm sorry mister I said okay and I went on the

[26:15] locker room so I got the locker room the guys told me say look you don't need to

[26:19] come in here so we got something to talk about I said okay so I just went on back

[26:24] outside and sat down and when you saw those boys when they come out look like

[26:29] it had fire in their eyes and U you know if Lake Butler they

[26:34] were eight and three if they beat us they were in the state playoffs but when

[26:39] them boys come out we beat them 33 to nothing we beat everybody else and they

[26:45] had a custom here in greenco if um you know we went off to

[26:49] play a game cuz we were winning all the time they would stay up and when when we

[26:54] come through green cold everybody would blow the horn and when you blowed the

[26:58] horn you can see lights turning off all over green Co so we getting ready to go

[27:02] to state championship we went down to graville that's down near

[27:07] Alabama with next door really and so the boys got out we got out there and warmed

[27:12] up and the boys was out there talking and they was you know this they they

[27:16] were giving us a hard time so y'all I know y'all sorry cuz y'all a got about

[27:20] four or five students and and people in the stands and I told the boys I said

[27:25] y'all just keep practicing don't worry about them so the game starts at 8:00

[27:30] about 10 minutes before the game started they had a gate down it started

[27:34] rumbling and when that gate come on there were 11 bus

[27:38] loads from greenco and I I don't know how many

[27:43] people drove but when when the game started we had people line up from the

[27:48] front of the sideline all the way down to the end and it you know we beat them

[27:54] 33 to nothing it was a great thing you know every everybody was together and

[27:59] that we didn't have no fights we didn't have no problems the school went fine

[28:03] and everywhere else they were having problems in Jacksonville they were

[28:05] talking they were beating people up with ax handles and all kind of stuff you

[28:10] couldn't do nothing but we didn't have that kind of stuff in green Co and like

[28:14] I said God always had prepared this everything I touched was like touching

[28:22] gold today Green Cove Springs is a harmonious blend of the past and present

[28:28] historic landmarks stand proudly alongside modern amenities reflecting

[28:32] our Rich Heritage and Progressive spirit in April of 2004 the city

[28:39] relocated its operations adjacent to the municipal swimming pool and moved into a

[28:44] new two-story stucco structure situated on the side of the former Clarendon and

[28:50] the kisana hotels the present day City Hall complex

[28:54] emulates the Mediterranean architectural style of the for former KY Sana hotel to

[29:00] preserve a historical Link to the community's Past Heritage and

[29:04] history our community thrives on Unity Innovation and the spirit of

[29:09] togetherness from farmers markets to festivals Green Cove Springs is a place

[29:14] where tradition and modern coexist beautifully whenever developers come and

[29:20] they want to be in Green Cove Springs and and you see new businesses pop up

[29:24] they pop up in areas where it makes sense where it enhances

[29:28] um the walkability enhances the quality of life it showcases our uh culture and

[29:34] history um these have been some of the uh the one would say boring and tedious

[29:42] groundwork that we have been laying that now we're starting to see these pieces

[29:46] go into place that's going to create this wonderful puzzle uh that is going

[29:52] to be the vision of GRE Co Springs going forward we have these Grand events

[29:57] whether it's the Riverfest or our Memorial Day presentation our veterans

[30:02] uh tributes that we do our uh whether it's the food truck Fridays they have a

[30:08] a really great polish and and they're Grand and they can attract 8,000 people

[30:14] but it still just feels like you're just around neighbors and friends we have the

[30:20] Cavita which is a great um a great event that is ran by more local volunteers and

[30:27] that highlights our from all over and brings it down here to our beautiful

[30:30] Park and makes it interactive uh and so that these people

[30:35] can put their work on display and then we can also teach youngsters and all of

[30:39] our other community members uh all of these different creative acts we also

[30:45] one of the first projects of our new newly established

[30:49] CRA the that thanks to our partnership with the county we just got that

[30:53] established this year so that we can invest in our City's core one of the

[30:57] first projects that under taking is public art exhibits or displays uh in

[31:01] some of our public spaces and and some of them we're going to highlight history

[31:06] some of I'm going to highlight local art and beauty of gr Cove Springs the

[31:09] natural beauty and it's it's another one of those things it's it sets the tone so

[31:14] it being the first project the CRA is going to tackle shows exactly where art

[31:19] and culture stands as far as importance for green Co Springs with the different

[31:24] activities and events that brings the community

[31:28] together so as you know we have the Soul Food Festival that's in October we have

[31:35] uh who can't forget about the Food Truck Friday that we have once a month we have

[31:40] our Police Department that have put us on events we have the friends of Augusta

[31:45] Savage that puts on events and our park is filled with a lot of events now since

[31:51] it's been renovated um we have people come from near and far just to be in the

[31:56] city of of greenco Springs dynamics of greenco Springs have kind of shifted and

[32:02] changed some and uh I believe we're it's a setup for a great great City in the

[32:11] future the future of Green Cove Springs is bright with plans for sustainable

[32:17] development enhanced infrastructure and community-driven projects we are Poise

[32:22] for continued growth and success one of the first decisions we

[32:27] made made when I came on Council was huge infrastructure Investments like

[32:32] we've never done and uh that was shocking as a new council member coming

[32:37] in before IID really learned anything so these are the the the steps that are

[32:43] taken that are kind of The Not So Exciting steps but so necessary to set

[32:47] us up so that we're really headed in the the right direction um making sure that

[32:52] we enhance and protect the the things that all of our residents hold dear

[32:57] which is like like our our natural beauty our natural resources which all

[33:00] of our infrastructure and our utilities they all have that in mind they know we

[33:05] have a responsibility to protect our waterways to protect our residents to

[33:09] keep our trees uh tree canopies beautiful and healthy to maintain that

[33:15] cultural feel that we have that is going to be the balance going forward I think

[33:19] we've really laid down the groundwork whether it's through our ordinances and

[33:24] form-based codes and laying out the city in an intentional way even in the next

[33:29] 50 years and I know that my grandchildren and family will be able to

[33:35] um you know see the results of what we're doing today and um that'll be

[33:41] something special for them so right now we are celebrating history but I'm

[33:48] making history one of my favorite phrases is honoring Our Heritage and

[33:53] forging our future uh part of that uh process

[33:58] is knowing what has occurred in the past and then trying to build off of that in

[34:04] a way that makes the community better uh as we've gone through the the history of

[34:10] green Co Springs we've had several eras that we have gone through since the

[34:17] 1874 uh incorporation uh we've had the the

[34:22] tourism draw the uh military era we had had the little Detroit era uh and now

[34:31] we're having the heavy growth era U that growth is coming and we can't do a whole

[34:37] lot about it other than manage it and managing it involves a lot of different

[34:43] areas of City operation which include the uh Planning and Zoning the land use

[34:52] uh making sure we have sufficient um people in departments such

[34:57] as Public Safety um Public Works um to make sure that the quality of life that

[35:05] existed back 150 years ago continues to exist today as well as as we move

[35:12] forward into the future into our next 150

[35:17] years from our storied past to our promising future Green Cove Springs

[35:22] stands as a testament to resilience community and vision I think the The

[35:28] Pride that I have in the city now is not only the mayor and Council but our team

[35:34] which uh I think I would put up against any team that uh you know we would be

[35:40] compared to and I think the members of that team will do their part to move us

[35:45] into the next 150 years we want to be the place that people can work and play

[35:50] and there's just something about living here going to whether it's going to the

[35:53] food truck Fridays or just going up to the the GR grocery store or walking down

[35:59] the street there's a

[36:02] familiarity and a neighborliness that uh I just did not

[36:07] experience until I came back and and we put down Roots here in Green Cove and

[36:13] there's definitely something that sets us apart join us in celebrating 150

[36:18] years and writing the next chapter of our City's remarkable history happy

[36:23] anniversary Green Coast Springs happy anniversary

[36:28] 150th Green Cove Springs happy anniversary Green Cove Springs happy

[36:34] anniversary greenco Springs happy 150th anniversary greenco

[36:42] Springs I love living here happy 150 of green Co Springs happy 150 year

[36:49] anniversary green Co Springs thank you for being the best part of our Cove life

[36:54] happy anniversary green happy 150th anniversary we

[37:03] [Applause] [Music]

City of Green Cove Springs 150th Anniversary Video

Transcript