by Mary-Kate Roan
Staff Writer
The Jacksonville Journey officially began Tuesday at Russell Bill Cook, Jr. Park when Mayor John Peyton and other leaders of the Journey came together to sign the 2008-09 budget for the City of Jacksonville.
Dist. 7 City Council member Johnny Gaffney kicked off the event.
“These are some of the great things that transcend our community and make an investment in our future through our kids,” said Gaffney of the economic development and education impact that the Journey will have on Jacksonville. “I thank God that we had the leadership in Jacksonville to step up.”
“This is a special day for me,” said Mayor Peyton. “It was December last year that we assembled in this park. And what we saw was a dilapidated community center that had been poorly maintained, neglected and underfunded.”
Peyton also pointed out the community center in front of him.
“And we chose this park because this was an example of the type of investments we needed to make in this city to take back our town and make Jacksonville safe,” said Peyton. “We launched what was then the beginning of the Jacksonville Journey.”
Peyton then said that the Journey was created because the status quo in Jacksonville was not acceptable.
“There’s to be some incremental results that are going to be expected,” said City Council President Ronnie Fussell. “The end product will be that Jacksonville will be safer, better and the best place to work, play and raise your family.”
As Peyton called it, the Journey was a “citizen driven action plan” that was embedded into the budget. Included in the Journey are police officers, prevention plans for children and programs to redirect convicted individuals that deserve another chance to have a successful life in Jacksonville.
“The Journey starts when we start getting these programs in place,” said Jacksonville Journey co-chair and former State Sen. Betty Holzendorf. “It starts when we start changing the behavior of the people in our community and begin making it safer.”
“That is a pie,” said Sheriff John Rutherford of the budget and the Journey. “It’s prevention, intervention and enforcement. We’ve got the answer and now we have the funding. Now we have the process.”
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