A $9 million city general obligation bond issue, which would pay about one-third of the cost to build a new airport, was sold to Lehman Brothers and Associates of New York.
The annual interest rate for the bonds was set at 3.2077 percent with a net interest cost to the city of $5.8 million over 30 years.
The construction cost for the replacement for Imeson Airport was $26.7 million.
In addition to the bonds, which would be repaid with ad valorem taxes, the project would be funded with $9 million in revenue certificates scheduled to be sold Oct. 6 and by $7.2 million and $1.2 million grants from the Federal Aviation Agency and the Department of Defense, respectively.
Mayor Lou Ritter said he and other city officials would travel to New York City on Sept. 14 to sign the bonds. They would receive the money the same day and would immediately begin condemnation proceedings for land at the airport site. Construction was expected to begin in November.
The day before the bond transaction was announced, City Commission voted to name the new facility Jacksonville International Airport.
• City officials praised the Haydon Burns Library as they toured the just-completed $2.5 million building Downtown at Adams and Ocean streets.
Keys to the new library were handed over to Mayor Lou Ritter, who in turn gave them to Cecil Bailey, chair of the library board of trustees.
Ritter, his fellow city commissioners, City Council members and other public officials were given a tour by Taylor Hardwick of Hardwick & Lee, architects for the project.
“This is one of the most beautiful buildings in the Southeast,” said Utilities Commissioner J. Dillon Kennedy.
Council member Richard Burroughs Jr. said the building was very functional and added, “the colors grow on you.”
The library would contain about 500,000 books and was scheduled to open in September.
• Florida was facing a crisis in fresh water supply, said Tom Ford, president of the Florida Association of Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors.
“Whether anything is done to head off such a crisis depends on how soon the public wakes up,” he said.
Addressing the association’s 30th annual conference at the George Washington Hotel, Ford said state conservationists were closely watching what Duval County would do about pollution in the St. Johns and Trout rivers.
He said it was unforgivable for a city to allow raw sewage to be dumped into a river or a stream.
“You wouldn’t allow it to be dumped on Main Street here in Jacksonville, so why dump it in your rivers where you fish and play?” he said.
• An attack on a new bottle club law was filed in Circuit Court the day the law went into effect.
The law was enacted by the 1965 Legislature in an effort to shut down after-hours, bring-your-own-alcohol establishments.
The suit was filed by James Bryan, operator of the Candy Cane at 8631 Atlantic Blvd., and the Forest Inn at 1436 Lake Shore Blvd.
The suit sought an injunction to prevent the state Beverage Department from enforcing the new law. The suit also was aimed against Duval County Tax Collector Clyde Simpson, who was required by law to collect a license fee from the clubs.
The suit contended that Bryan’s operations were not bottle clubs and therefore should be excluded from the regulations. Bryan also asked the court to declare the law unconstitutional.
The law described a bottle club as an establishment whose primary purpose was to provide a “drinking location.”
The clubs did not sell alcoholic beverages but permitted patrons to bring liquor and drink it on club premises. The clubs provided mixes for drinks, food, orchestra music and nightclub-type entertainment. They operated after the 2 a.m. closing hour for licensed bars.
The new law required the bottle clubs to buy a $750 liquor license and close at the legal hour of 2 a.m. Bryan said 90 percent of his business was after 2 a.m. and the effect of the law would be to close his clubs.
A hearing on the injunction was scheduled Sept. 2 before Circuit Judge Marion Gooding.
The bottle clubs became a serious vice problem in the late 1950s, according to Lt. J.L. Hamlin of the county vice squad.
He said at one time, there were 15 such clubs in the county and they were meeting places for prostitutes, locations for illegal whiskey sales and that some patrons complained of being robbed or sold beverages under false pretenses.
• The City Commission denied without discussion a request by Jacksonville Beach for a reduction in the rate charged by Jacksonville for electricity.
Utilities Commissioner J. Dillon Kennedy presented to the commission a letter from Jacksonville Beach Mayor William Wilson that said a fuel cost adjustment in the contract between the two cities resulted in an excessive increase in the charge for electricity.
Invocation of the fuel cost escalator clause had rusted in an increased cost to the beach community of 3 mills per kilowatt hour.
Wilson said that far exceeded the actual increase in production cost caused by increases in the price of fuel oil. He asked the total charge to Jacksonville Beach be reduced by 2 mills per kilowatt hour.
• Two surfers were fined $100 each after they did not heed a police officer’s warning to stop surfing 800 yards from shore.
Charles Zambito, 18, of Jacksonville and Nevin Summers, 20, of Jacksonville Beach, received the fines in Jacksonville Beach Municipal Court.
They were charged under a city ordinance that prohibited surfing more than 100 yards from shore.
In a hearing before Judge Raymond Simpson, Jacksonville Beach Patrolman E.L. Russell said he warned a group of surfers not to go out too far.
Russell said the defendants ignored his warning, borrowed two surfboards and then paddled out about 800 yards.
Russell dispatched lifeguards in a rescue boat to retrieve the surfers. When they were returned to land, Summers and Zambito ran. Lifeguards caught the pair four blocks from their landfall.
Simpson originally fined the men $100 each and sentenced them to 10 days in the city jail, but he suspended the jail sentences because it was the first surfing offense for each.
However, Simpson ordered Summers to spend 10 days in jail for contempt of court because he had failed to keep a previous date with the judge pertaining to a traffic citation.