Mayor John Peyton has been on a rotary club tour of sorts while touting his plans to reopen Cecil Field as a Navy jet base. Tuesday, the Rotary Club of South Jacksonville heard the other side of the argument from Florida Times-Union columnist Ron Littlepage.
Littlepage ran through his comments given at the Radisson Riverwalk Hotel like a line-by-line rebuttal to the mayor’s claims that giving Cecil back to the Navy would be the best way to continue the Westside’s economic turnaround.
The roar of jet planes practicing carrier landings at Cecil would stall development in the area while taking $1.6 billion in land off of Duval County’s tax rolls, said Littlepage.
Littlepage also pointed out what he said were inconsistencies in the case the mayor has made in favor of turning Cecil over to the Navy. He said Peyton has provided conflicting information on the salaries that the turnover would generate and on the future of Cecil Field’s Equestrian Center.
“They don’t know what the effects will be. That’s the point I’m trying to make,” said Littlepage.