Budget hearings begin, mayor asks for more police officers
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville 50 years 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 similarities may be, so are the differences. These are some of the top stories from the week of Sept. 14-20, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• The City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee began a series of public hearings on the proposed 1959-60 fiscal year budget of more than $71 million. The budget had already been approved by the City Commission.
The committee would go over the “bulky list” item-by-item with City commissioners and representatives of agencies requesting funds before adopting the budget.
The proposed budget called for expenditures of $11 million more than the 1958-59 budget. Those seeking increases (with the 1959 appropriations in parentheses) included Jacksonville University, $100,000 ($50,000); Edward Waters College, $50,000 ($25,000); North Florida Association for Retarded Children, $10,000 ($5,000); County Venereal Clinic, $10,000 ($6,000); Jacksonville Art Museum, $13,000 ($11,000); Jacksonville Symphony Association, $3,500 ($2,500); and the Jacksonville Humane Society, which was seeking an undetermined increase over its previous year’s budget of $2,400.
J. Dillon Kennedy, commissioner of utilities and radio, took less than 90 minutes to explain his “whopping” $33,850,000 request to the committee.
He blamed the increasing number of new customers and the greater demand for electricity from the old ones for most of the $3,465,470 increase he was seeking over the 1958-59 budget. Kennedy said his department expected 12,000 new services, which would cost $1.1 million.
Mayor-Commissioner Haydon Burns reported all of the City commissioners had cut their capital improvement budget requests “to the bone” in view of more than $2 million in one-time expenses facing the City in 1960.
Burns told the committee recent storm damage would cost more than $1 million to repair. In addition the City was confronted with $500,000 each from construction of the new coliseum and for furniture and fixtures for the new City Hall.
He made the observation while presenting to the committee budgets for the departments under his supervision as safety commissioner. Burns said increases in capital improvement expenditures sought by the police and fire departments were considered “absolutely necessary” for efficient operation.
Two highlights of his report were requests for 25 additional patrolmen for the police department and funds to reduce the fire department’s work week from 72 hours to 56 hours.
Burns pointed out he originally requested 59 new patrolmen but the City Commission cut the figure to 25 “in the light of the present general financial structure of the City.”
• Shoppers and business people began to take advantage of a free bus shuttle service Downtown.
Richard J. Lewinson, president of the Downtown Council, said the service has been in the planning stages for four months and declared: “It’s a most important thing for the city of Jacksonville.”
Mayor Haydon Burns predicted the free shuttle would be “only the beginning” and that there would one day be three or four free shuttle buses in service Downtown. He said the new service was an added convenience in a metropolitan area that serviced shoppers from a 250-mile radius and added, “In a growing city with ever-increasing distances from one end of the city to another this new service is a real addition.”
The first day, 204 people took advantage of the free ride an within a week ridership was increasing at the rate of more than 100 passengers a day.
City Building Inspector Hugh Manie was developing plans to construct 11 bus stop shelters along the new route. The City Council authorized an expenditure of $3,000 for the canopies and Hugh Curtis, executive director of the Downtown Council, said a company had offered to put benches in the shelters. It was noted there would not be any advertising on the benches.
• Gov. LeRoy Collins announced the retirement of Fourth Judicial Circuit Judge Claude Ogilvie and the appointment of his successor. Ogilvie would retire Oct. 1 and attorney John Mathews McNatt would take over the post.
McNatt was a partner in the law firm of McNatt and Mathews and had practiced in Jacksonville since 1930 after graduating from the University of Florida law school.
• It was reported the application of Terrence Chappell Davis for a job on the City police force would probably be removed from the active file. That’s because he was chased by a City policeman at speeds up to 75 miles per hour before his car ran off the road.
The chase began when Patrolman H.L. Plunkett observed Davis exceeding the speed limit in a school zone on Moncrief Road. Davis also collided with another vehicle prior to his apprehension, causing approximately $350 in damage.
Plunkett said Davis asked him upon his arrest, “Do you think this will hurt my chances of getting on the police force?”
• A Duval County Patrol dispatcher, C.L. Cody, was presented a wrist watch for rescuing a woman drowning in the St. Johns River at the rear of the County Courthouse. He was credited with saving the life of Julia Johnson Sept. 2 and was presented the watch by the Fraternal Order of Police Associates.
• The Very Rev. Charles Leighton McGavern was installed as dean of St. John’s Cathedral. He was the third dean and succeeded the Rt. Rev. Roger W. Blanchard, who left the post upon his election as bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.
• Clay County joined a number of other Florida counties and began paying a $2.50 bounty on rattlesnakes under the terms of a 1959 legislative act. The County Commission voted to pay the bounty after Clerk George Carlisle reported a number of persons had brought rattlesnakes to the County Courthouse in Green Cove Springs expecting payment.
“One man brought three by my house one night,” he said.
The commissioners made it clear that the snakes had to be dead and the sheriff had to inspect the snake before the bounty could be paid. The law also required the sheriff to issue a voucher for payment and bury the reptile to guard against possibly paying a second bounty on the same snake.
• Jacksonville University began classes for the 1959-60 academic year with a record enrollment of 1,900 students. That number was expected to swell to nearly 2,300 after late enrollees registered. A full-time faculty of 60 members plus about 20 part-time instructors was also a record number for the university.
In addition to new courses and new instructors, other changes had taken place on campus over the summer including a new parking lot.