A 300-room hotel to be known as the Sheraton Jacksonville would be the next phase of development in the Gulf Life Center on a three-acre tract on the south bank of the St. Johns River near the Main Street Bridge.
Plans for the hotel were announced by M.S. Niehaus, president of Gulf Life Insurance Co., and Ernest Henderson III, president of Sheraton Corp. of America.
It was estimated the structure, which still was being designed but expected to be five to seven stories, would cost $5.5 million to build. It would be constructed by Associated Developments of Akron, Ohio, and operated by Sheraton.
“Jacksonville was selected for this latest addition to the Sheraton chain because of the great potential offered by the city and Northeast Florida,” Henderson said. “Entering the Jacksonville market opens to our organization another key national and growing city to which we can make a most important contribution.”
• City Finance Commissioner Dallas Thomas introduced a fund resolution to be sent to City Council that was expected to be quickly approved. The bill called for an extra payday in December for city employees.
The extra week’s pay stemmed from a demand for a 53rd payday because there were 53 Fridays in 1965.
Council members and commissioners expressed support for the extra paycheck as soon as the unusual calendar situation was recognized earlier in the year.
Initially, City Auditor John Hollister simply divided each employee’s annual salary by 53 weeks instead of 52 weeks. That’s when city workers began to protest.
Their reaction caused officials to direct Hollister to mount a search for extra funds in the city treasury. He found $353,000 of the approximately $450,000 needed, putting the city about $100,000 short of making the additional payroll.
The extra funds included $272,000 from an old Jacksonville Coach Co. bond revenue fund and $81,000 in an old Municipal Docks and Terminals bond fund.
• City Commission approved an organization plan for the police department based on recommendations from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
In moving approval of the plan, Mayor-Commissioner Lou Ritter added to the resolution a freeze on hiring new officers until the top-heavy ranks were cleared out by resignation or retirement.
Ritter’s amendment provided that no patrol officers would be hired until funds were saved “through attrition of members in higher ranks.”
• Criminal Court Judge Hans Tanzler sentenced former Justice of the Peace Joby Jones to one year in the county jail on a charge of attempting to operate a lottery.
Tanzler also revoked the probation he granted Jones in March on the lottery charge. The conditions of the probation were that Jones refrain from drinking and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Probation Officer Ray Howard testified that Jones was hospitalized twice for alcoholism — April 25-29 and May 2-5 — and had threatened his ex-wife twice June 20 with two handguns.
Ann Jones, who was divorced from the defendant, also testified at the hearing.
She said Jones came to her home at 3362 Sheridan Road at 1:30 p.m., forced her into the bedroom and demanded she return to him.
She said at that time Jones did not appear to have been drinking, but had two pistols. Jones calmed down and left the room when family members walked in after she called for help.
Jones returned to the home at 7:30 p.m., she said, and he was drunk and still brandishing the guns.
Before passing sentence, Tanzler asked Jones if he had anything to say in his defense.
Jones said he remembered going to the home but could not remember making threats.
In April 1964, Jones was charged with accepting $300 monthly in bribes to protect a lottery in his JP district.
The absence of the principal witness in the case from the state and the inability to get the witness to return resulted in an amended charge against Jones. The charge was changed to attempting to operate a lottery, for which Jones drew the probation.
• During a meeting of the Jacksonville Beach City Council, former council member Franklin Left was silenced by Mayor William Wilson.
It wasn’t the first time Left, who had indicated he would again be a candidate in October, disrupted council proceedings by sitting in the audience and speaking on various issues.
Wilson told Left he could make comments but could not engage in debates with council members or the public during the meetings.
In the most recent incident, after council approved borrowing $125,000 from the Employee Retirement System to finance relocation of some utility lines, Left rose and demanded, “Why are you always borrowing money?”
He insisted on addressing his question to City Manager Walter Johnson. When Wilson ruled him out of order and Left persisted, Wilson threatened to have him removed from the council chamber.
“Go ahead and remove me,” Left shouted. “I’d love to have you remove me. You are a Hitler. Do you want me to bang my shoe on the railing?”
Council member William Mabry said he thought Left should be removed because he upset the dignity and decorum of the council chamber.
Left then shouted to Mabry, whom he said he planned to oppose in the next election, “I’d love to be removed, just like I’m going to remove you in October.”
Wilson again warned Left and the meeting resumed.
• Mrs. Van Etten Bent had an intuition when she and her husband returned home from a restaurant one evening this week in 1965.
“Van, you know they got Herb Underwood last night and we’re next,” she recalled telling Mr. Bent as they got out of their car.
As he opened the door of their home at 3804 Richmond St., turned on the lights and looked inside, he said “Oh my God,” Mrs. Bent later recalled.
The Bent home was thoroughly ransacked. Antique silver and jewelry worth thousands of dollars was missing, according to the couple.
The couple’s home was the fifth in a series of major jewelry and silver burglaries reported in the previous two weeks.
Already broken into was the 2626 River Road home of jewelry store owner H.F. Underwood. He was out of town when the break-in occurred, but police expected that he too would report being the victim of theft.
“I think once Mr. Underwood arrives home, we’ll find something missing,” said Sgt. W.M. Tomlinson.
• A federal program to provide government research reports to business and industry for only the cost of printing was being developed in the Jacksonville office of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The information was being collected and then distributed through the new Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information.
The clearinghouse was collecting reports from government agencies at a rate of 50,000 a year, said Bruce Curry, trade specialist in charge of the local Commerce Department office.
The government’s goal, he said, was to ensure fullest possible use of the information as a means for industry to update operations and stay abreast of developments in their fields.
• Jacksonville was building bridges in 1965.
Construction began on the Arlington River Bridge which would link Cesery and University boulevards.
Trees along Cesery from Arlington Road to the bank of the river were being cleared to make way for the four-lane span.
The contractor had 180 working days to complete the $764,997 project.
Work also started on the San Carlos Creek Bridge on State Road 105. The existing timber bridge would be removed and replaced by a 552-foot concrete structure under a $239,349 contract