by Miranda G. McLeod
Staff Writer
Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford was an impromptu guest speaker at the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s November board meeting and he’s looking to form a task force to help builders. Rutherford asked for the builders help to see how the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office can help their industry after a rash of burglaries from construction sites.
The sheriff implemented Operation Ice Cold in September but not many of the builders had heard about it.
The operation found eight different individuals who were working with different organizations stealing copper wire, refrigerators, air conditioning units and other household appliances off jobsites. Rutherford said that 1,022 thefts occurred from January through August in Jacksonville — that’s an average of two a day — amounting to more than $3.5 million of property loss.
“I can tell you, the theft of home appliances out of new construction is responsible for a vast majority of our property thefts and we want to work with you to try and stop that somehow,” said Rutherford, who is looking at creating a committee to evaluate what can be done.
“Maybe there are some ordinance issues we can look at,” said Rutherford, adding that maybe delaying document requirements until people were really ready to move in would help.
“There has to be something we can do to save not only you money, but all of your customers as well as cut back on some of these thefts,” he said.
Beyond document requirements, Rutherford suggested the use of home video cameras or having builders report to the JSO when certain items would be installed so police could watch for thefts in that area.
“These are just ideas,” said Rutherford. “But we should sit down and figure out how we can attack this problem. I can tell you that the $3.5 million we looked at is probably a drop in the bucket...We want to come up with a good strategy to knock these bad guys out. We find these guys driving around in trucks out there and we know it’s stolen because all the lines are cut, but we can’t trace it back to any particular location.”
Also at the board meeting:
• Six students from the University of North Florida each received a $2,000 scholarship from NEFBA’s Arnold Tritt Scholarship Foundation for their participation in the community, club activities and work inside the classroom. Adam Brang, Dan Shefferly, Richard Paddock, Devin Call, Kyland Fitzpatrick and Jeff Franco all received scholarships. The six students are part of the UNF-NEFBA student chapter that, among other projects, worked two Saturdays to replace a 10,000 square foot roof at the Boys Home in Arlington. More than 120 construction students completed the community service project valued at $25,000.
• The Arnold Tritt Scholarship Foundation received a boost after NEFBA’s annual gala, which raised $20,000 for the foundation and $25,000 for NEFBA’s Charitable Foundation.
• In conjunction with NEFBA’s Great Time to Buy campaign, Winn-Dixie Chef Robert mixed one of the 12 Drinks of Christmas for NEFBA members at the board meeting. Part of the campaign involves being a sponsor of the non-alcoholic drink promotion conducted through the supermarkets.