by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
A proposed ordinance may change the name of one of downtown’s oldest municipal buildings.
If approved, the City Hall Annex on East Bay Street will be renamed for Haydon Burns, a former Jacksonville mayor and Florida governor.
The bill is sponsored by Council president Lad Daniels. Others on the Council, including Suzanne Jenkins and Jerry Holland, said they would likely support it.
“It’s good idea to remember the people who helped shape the city,” said Jenkins. “It’s important to have a link to the past while we move into the future.”
Holland agreed, but added naming another building for Burns may be a wiser choice. “I think he should be remembered in some way, but I have concerns that building may not be around for much longer,” he said.
The City Hall Annex is currently for sale.
“As I understand it, when it was determined the new Main Library would not be named for (Burns), his family really struggled with that,” said Holland.
According to an ordinance passed by the Council a few years ago, municipal buildings under the Better Jacksonville Plan will not be named for anyone living or dead.
“We wanted to take more of a classic approach,” said Property Appraiser Jim Overton, who served on the Council when the ordinance was drafted. “In looking at other cities, we felt it would be better suited to name those buildings for the public and keep them as generic as possible.”
Overton said the Annex was a more “appropriate” choice to carry Burns’ name and that his family agreed.
The bill, however, does make provisions to name another, undetermined public building for Burns “in the event the current City Hall Annex is sold or demolished.”
According to its text, “the Council, recognizing that the current City Hall Annex may at some future date be vacated by City offices and employees and may be sold to a private developer, put to use or demolished . . . declares the name of Haydon Burns shall be applied to an alternate public facility in order to continue the public commemoration of Mayor and Governor Burns’ career.”
“I’m sure we’ll eventually have to name something else for him,” said Holland, “but if his family is content with the Annex, then I’m content with it.”