The Board of Public Instruction announced it was parking all school buses in Duval County due to lack of funds.
Despite the board submitting a $50.9 million spending plan proposal for 1965-66, the Budget Commission preliminarily approved expenditures of only $42.9 million.
More than 34,000 students rode school buses in 1965, about 29 percent of the total enrollment.
The shortfall also led the board to cancel night football games and other athletic events unless they could be held at no expense to the school system.
The school board’s action was supported by the Duval Teachers Association, Duval Taxpayers Association, Citizens School Action Committee, Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, League of Women Voters and a representative of school bus operators.
It was noted the board took the actions in an attempt to rally public support behind the proposed budget and to put pressure on the commission to increase funding for public education.
The chamber’s board of governors approved a resolution calling for the commission to “urgently and prayerfully” reconsider its drastic cut.
It further stated, “This arbitrary budget reduction and the humiliating paralysis in our school program will deal a serious blow to the reputation and economic future of Duval County.”
The court also got involved in the issue.
Circuit Judge William Durden issued a decree ordering school bus operators to continue operations without interruption until further notice.
School Superintendent Ish Brant said the order would constitute authority for the buses to operate and the Budget Commission agreed to shift funds in the budget to finance continued transportation for students.
Durden’s temporary injunction came after a mandamus suit was filed by attorney Arthur Gutman for Dr. Jack Snyder, a dentist, on behalf of Snyder’s 15-year-old daughter, who rode a bus to Wolfson High School.
Gutman contended that under state law, the school board was required to furnish transportation for students who lived more than 2 miles from the school where they were enrolled.
Durden maintained jurisdiction in the case, but said a date for a final hearing on the injunction would not be scheduled until after Nov. 19, when the commission was to make a final ruling on the requested increase in the public school budget.
• Six sections of Duval County, including four inside the Jacksonville city limits, were the chief poverty areas, according to the executive director of Greater Jacksonville Economic Opportunity Inc.
Gordon Bunch, head of the local anti-poverty effort, told members of the League of Women Voters the six locations were found to be the worst concentrations of poverty, but other “smaller pockets” also existed.
The six areas were the Joseph W. Blodgett Housing Project, the east side of Jacksonville near the Gator Bowl, all of Springfield, the northwest section of the county, the Baldwin area and the low-income section of the Beaches area.
Bunch said figures compiled by his organization indicated that, contrary to some people’s opinions, poverty existed among a significant portion of the county population.
Based on 1960 U.S. Census data, of 111,294 families in the county, 24,892 (22.4 percent) had annual incomes of less than $3,000. Incomes of less than $1,000 per year were found in 5,869 families, he said.
Describing the extent of poverty, Bunch said 21 percent of housing was considered substandard and 25 percent of residents over age 25 had fewer than eight years of education.
“Among this poverty-stricken group, tax paying is quite low or nonexistent,” he said. “But they are the chief users of social welfare, have the most health problems, the largest number of school dropouts, the highest unemployment rates, the highest crime and juvenile delinquency rates and the most substandard housing.”
The organization was proposing the establishment of a local war on poverty, including employment assistance for adults and jobs programs for young people.
“The philosophy of this program is not that existing wealth should be redistributed, but that poor people can and must be provided an opportunity to earn a decent living and to maintain their families on a reasonably comfortable basis,” Bunch said.
• Duval County Commissioner Bob Harris and Ashley Verlander, president of American Heritage Life Insurance Co., were recognized by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Harris received the 1965 Good Government Award for his efforts to promote traffic safety and port development as well as improving zoning and planning.
Owner of an insurance agency, Harris was past president of the Jacksonville Jaycees, a member of the Gator Bowl Association and a director of the Arlington YMCA.
The Good Citizen Award was presented to Verlander for his work in a number of community activities.
He was a member of the University Council of Jacksonville University and vice chair of the school’s Living Endowment Fund.
A Georgia Tech graduate, Verlander also was a director of the Barnett First National Bank, Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Bureau, Florida State Chamber of Commerce and Southside Day School.
• A bid of $180,500 for the old city-owned utilities building at Laura and Water streets was withdrawn because City Council delayed approval of the sale for four months.
The bid from State Investment Co. was received June 8 and the City Commission sent to council a proposed ordinance authorizing the sale.
There it remained without action despite a request in late September from Utilities Commissioner J. Dillon Kennedy for council to pass the ordinance or kill it.
No action was taken, so State Investment sent a letter to the commission demanding return of its $9,000 performance bond.
Kennedy’s motion to rescind the sale, refund the bond and withdraw the sale ordinance from council was approved.
“And lock up the utilities building,” he said. “We might again attempt to sell it when we can get the council in a mood to sell it.”
Council member R. Lavern Reynolds, chair of the Appraisals Committee, said the committee felt the price offered was too low.
He said he had not completed his appraisal of the building, so as far as he was concerned, the bill was still in committee.
• Jacksonville’s eighth annual arts festival ended after drawing an estimated 30,000 visitors during its five-day run at the Civic Auditorium.
Large audiences turned out for the final day of the event which featured performances by the Friday Musicale, Jacksonville Concert Chorale, Jacksonville University College of Fine Arts and the Starlight Symphonette.
Also on the program was a lecture by novelist C.P. Lee, two plays by the Storybook Players of the Jacksonville Public Library and five art films by Carmen D’Avino presented by Taylor Hardwick.