Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Jacksonville Realtors, ex- pressing fear of socialism and government control, opposed legislation which would give City government sweeping powers to eliminate slums and redevelop blighted areas under its urban renewal plan.
Ralph Lyles, speaking for the Board of Realtors, said the organization had adopted a resolution putting it on record as being “unalterably opposed to urban renewal under government control.”
Lyles spoke at a meeting at City Hall held by the Duval County legislative delegation on proposed bills affecting City government. The State Legislature would convene in April.
City Attorney William Madison said the bill would enable the City to participate in urban renewal plans with the federal government paying two-thirds of the cost. The measure would allow the City to acquire property for slum clearance purposes by a number of methods, including condemnation, purchase and lease. It could also sell or lease property to private interests for redevelopment purposes.
Lyles said the Board of Realtors favored a plan of “urban rehabilitation,” rebuilding blighted areas piecemeal with local resources through private enterprise and with no federal control.
Another Realtor, Richard D. Barker, called the urban renewal plan “a radical departure from the Constitution which will lead us down the road to socialism and government control.”
State Sen. Wayne Ripley, who led the delegation, said he had never seen any slum areas in Jacksonville.
• Payment of $157,500 from a federal construction grant for pollution control was received by the City.
City Engineer Bill Bryant notified the City Commission at its meeting that the payment represented 90 percent of a grant of $175,000 from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for construction of sewage facilities. The remainder of the funds would be received when the construction was complete.
• The Duval County Juvenile Court judge would receive a $9,000 yearly salary hike and be forbidden to engage in any other business or profession under terms of a proposed law filed with the Clerk of Circuit Court.
The measure would bar the judge from the private practice of law, an activity permitted since the court’s creation in 1915.
Sponsor of the bill was the incumbent, Judge Lamar Winegeart Jr. The measure called for a salary increase from $8,500 to $17,500 annually.
Winegeart took office Jan. 4 under appointment from Gov. Farris Bryant following the election of former Juvenile Judge Marion Gooding to the Circuit Court bench.
Winegeart said that in 16 days on the juvenile court bench in January, he handled 426 cases and had averaged 10 to 12 hours daily in Juvenile Court work.
• County Solicitor Edward M. Booth also proposed legislation to increase his salary and that of his assistants. It also would add one assistant and two investigators to his staff.
Booth, whose office handled all prosecutions in two divisions of Criminal Court, asked that his salary be increased from $12,600 to $16,000 annually.
He also requested authority to appoint eight assistant solicitors, which would add two to his staff. He proposed salaries of $11,000 each for two assistants, $10,000 each for two assistants, $9,000 each for two assistants and $8,000 each for two assistants.
At the time, two assistants were paid $8,600, two were paid $7,600 and the other two, $6,600. The proposed investigators would be paid $5,000 each.
• J. Ellis Crosby, chair of the projects and screening committee of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, announced that proceeds from the club’s annual Charity Ball would be used to construct the first building ever designed for year-round use at Boy Scout Camp Echockotee in Orange Park.
The ball would be presented March 14 at the George Washington Hotel. The club had engaged Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians for the affair.
The new building for the scouts would be constructed at a cost of approximately $10,000. During the summer camp months, the building would be used for handicrafts and as a trading post. The rest of the year it would be used to train adult scout leaders.
“We feel that building for youth is really building for the future,” said Crosby, who added the project was selected from more than a dozen submitted to the committee.
• The American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps at Jacksonville Beach celebrated its 50th anniversary with a spotless record of no drownings in a guarded area over the five-decade span.
Prior to the summer of 1912, there were no facilities nor personnel to protect the hundreds of bathers at the former Pablo Beach. Other bathers, who were untrained in life saving or who were poor swimmers themselves, risked or lost their lives while trying to help swimmers in distress. First aid and medical attention was 25 miles away, too remote in some instances to save a life.
The idea of the corps was conceived in 1912 by Dr. Lyman Haskell, physical director of the YMCA. Concerned with the conditions existing at the Beaches, he enlisted the help of Clarence McDonald, playground director for the City of Pablo Beach.
The organization was originally called the Jacksonville Life Saving Corps and was a unit of the United States Volunteer Life Saving Corps. The local group became the American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps in 1917, the American Red Cross’ first chartered unit in the field of life saving.