Record budget adopted by County Commission, pool hall raided
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 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• The Duval County Commission adopted a record-breaking $14 million budget for 1960-61, including major increases in spending for road improvements, volunteer fire department services, county employee pay raises, additional courthouse construction and playgrounds.
The appropriations to be asked for by the commission indicated a more than 50-mill total ad valorem tax rate for 1960. It was expected the School Board would again ask for its 20-mill tax maximum and another $3.35 million would be required by law for the Duval County Hospital Board.
County Assessor Leon Forbes had indicated that the taxable property in the county would increase to $430 million or more in 1961, thus tending to keep the tax rate down. Based on his estimate that the mill would be worth $430,000, it would require 21.35 mills, or $21.35 per $1,000 of taxable value, to meet the commission’s proposed budget. The School Board would add 20 mills and would have to provide 2 mills to pay off current bonds and possibly from 4 to 6 more mills to cover the proposed $35 million school construction bond issue if the school board won its case for the new bonds, which was pending before the Supreme Court.
Under terms of a 1959 Duval County special tax law, the commission was asking for $247,131 for the county’s 15 volunteer fire departments, an additional $500,000 for road and bridge improvements over previous appropriations granted for that item and $127,000 for pay increases for 456 employees working under the commission’s jurisdiction.
The commission was also proposing $197,555 for capital improvements, including $50,000 for mandatory expansion of the Circuit Court facilities to accommodate two new Circuit Court judges Duval County was expected to receive when the 1960 census was completed.
• The Jacksonville Historical Society elected Egbert S. Moore president for the coming year. Other new officers were Mal Haughton Jr., first vice president; Mrs. Karl Bardin, second vice president; Mrs. W.E. Mott, corresponding secretary; Miss Martha Lee Segui, recording secretary; Frank Harris, treasurer; Herbert Lamson, historian; and Miss Audrey Broward, archivist.
• Circuit Court Judge Edwin Jones took under advisement a motion by the Florida Milk Commission to dismiss a suit filed by Foremost Dairies Inc. in an effort to bar a commission hearing that could result in the revocation of the company’s business license. The suit was for both a permanent injunction to bar the commission from holding the license revocation hearing and for a declaratory decree determining if the firm had violated certain price-fixing orders of the commission.
A temporary injunction had already been granted in the case, halting a commission hearing scheduled in April.
The motion for a summary decree dismissing the suit was argued by Winston Arnow of Gainesville, the commission’s attorney, and Chester Bedell, who represented the dairy company.
Arnow contended Foremost was asking the court to take over the administrative functions of the milk commission, which was charged with investigating allegations that its orders had been violated. He noted there was a legal avenue for a review of any commission action and declared the suit was premature.
Bedell argued that a judicial interpretation of the commission’s orders, and also of the statutes defining the commission’s authority, was imperative before any hearing was held on the question of revoking Foremost’s license.
The commission contended Foremost violated its order against fixing the prices to be paid producers for their milk in two instances.
One allegedly occurred when Foremost transferred milk produced in Gainesville and St. Petersburg to its Tallahassee plant and sold it to a military installation in that area. The other was when milk from Georgia was shipped to Jacksonville from Savannah and sold to the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.
Foremost contended that neither action violated the commission’s orders and that producers were adequately compensated.
The commission also charged that Foremost had not made its business records available for inspection by milk board agents as required by law.
• Mayor Haydon Burns reported the disappearance of his statewide list of gubernatorial supporters.
Burns had placed third in the race for governor a week before the documents went missing and said the list apparently was taken from his state headquarters on the evening of the Democratic primary election.
Burns said he had been informed that some of his supporters were receiving “first name” letters from an unidentified source asking them to support one of the candidates in the run-off primary.
“I want my supporters to know that I have not supplied any persons with a list nor do I intend to furnish one. The letters are being written without my sanction,” said Burns.
Two days later, the nation’s mayors honored Burns by electing him vice president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors at the organization’s meeting in Chicago. The conference ended with the installation of the new president, Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dillwoth, whom Burns succeeded as vice president. The retiring president was Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago.
The election of Burns from a comparatively small city was considered significant by many of the municipal chief executives who attended the meeting. Previously, the officers had been elected from cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Philadelphia.
“I am elated,” Burns told reporters at a news conference in Chicago. “To be elected vice president is an honor I did not expect and one I appreciate very much.”
• City and County investigators raided Murray’s Billiards at 2416 W. Beaver St. and arrested the proprietor and 10 other persons on gambling charges.
Players were at three tables when the officers swung open the front and back doors, but no money was found on the tables.
Lt. J.L. Hamblin of the County Vice Squad said, however, that an undercover agent who previously visited the establishment would be able to testify that certain scraps of paper found on the tables represented winnings and losings convertible to cash.
Joseph J. Murray, 44, was charged with operating a gambling house and bond was set at $1,000. The other 10 men were charged with being inmates of a gambling house and their bond was set at $25 each.
Officers said they confiscated decks of cards found on two of the tables and about 20 other decks located on a shelf behind the fountain at the front of the building, dominoes from a third table and several boxes of dominoes found on the shelf, and several tally sheets which officers said represented the gambling profits and losses.
• Jacksonville Beach City Manager Wilson Wingate and Carlos Medley, license inspector, said they would seek clarification on questions regarding operation of the new ocean pier at Sixth Avenue.
The officials said they wanted City Attorney Stephen Stratford’s opinion whether the City franchise for the pier exempted it from buying occupational licenses and if the pier was to be considered inside the city limits.
Another question was whether the pier franchise, which provided for amusement and recreational operations as well as fishing, came under area zoning restrictions.
The pier operators had filed an application for a dancing license. Owners of nearby property immediately presented a petition claiming the zoning did not allow dancing in that area. The petition also opposed granting of a beer license, but it later was shown there were no zoning restrictions on beer sales in the pier area.