ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — Just days after being told they have to stay away, St. Johns County residents are missing their beaches sorely and they’re letting their leadership know it. A petition is pleading that re-opening beaches for several hours each day and only to county residents would solve the crowding that triggered closing the beaches as of Sunday morning.
In a FaceTime interview Tuesday, 33-year St. Augustine Beach resident Carl Gill insisted that the final straw had been people coming to St. Johns County – particularly its northernmost stretches – which had been flooded with people from Duval County, which had closed its beaches more than a week earlier.
“That killed it,” Gill asserted. “The Mickler Beach that we saw on TV on Saturday, I think, sent the message to St. Johns County administrators, that we can’t put up with that.”
Gill said the proof was in the contrast with beaches more central to St. Johns County, such as Vilano and his own hometown.
“I mean, down here we were separated by at least six feet if not more," he said. "There was lots of separation between us.”
By Wednesday evening a petition on the website Change.org, which had been started three days prior, had garnered more than 8,000 signatures.
The petition read:
“Dear St Johns County Leadership,
During these challenging times, we understand the hard decisions you are facing daily to keep our residents safe. We understand that you were forced to close the beaches due to parts of the population not following social distancing guidelines.
As the surf community of the great City of St. Augustine, we have come together to ask you to consider a common-sense solution that would allow residents to recreate but keep the partying and congregating at bay. We petition that beaches be opened to St. John’s County residents with valid ID only and that they only be open from dawn - 11 a.m. And again from 5 p.m. until dark. This would allow surfers, walkers, fishermen, etc. to engage with the ocean. This is essential to the mental and physical well being of many of our residents. Brevard County has implemented a similar strategy that appears to be working well.
We humbly appreciate your consideration. Surfing is a huge part of our lives and one of the safest activities one can engage in right now. We look forward to getting back into our oceans!
Sincerely, The Surf Community”
Although he didn’t start the petition, Gill agreed with its general request, actually suggesting that as long as the county limits hours, it need not re-open only to residents. The benefits, he said while offering an example of timeframe, would be twofold.
“One is that we all get exercise, the second one is that we release a little bit of deputy time because they won’t have to be there from 5 o’clock [in the morning], they’ll be there from 8:30 a.m,” he said.
He also expressed concern that the closure, although intended to protect public health, might actually be causing an unintended danger.
“[Pedestrians] are getting closer walking on the sidewalks of A1A than if they were to walk on the beach,” Gill said, pointing out that by “closer,” he means closer to each other and to traffic.
St. Johns County was last among its shoreline neighbors – Duval to the north and Flagler to the south – to close its beaches. And although county officials declined to lift or alter the closure at a meeting Tuesday morning, county administrator Hunter Conrad sent First Coast News the following statement:
“We’re constantly monitoring, evaluating, and assessing opportunities to support our community while keeping the public health, safety, and welfare our number one priority. While we don’t have a specific time for when the possibility of prescribed time periods of access for residents would occur, we will continue to evaluate this every day as we move forward and we collectively hope that it’s sooner than later.”