Municipal purchasing practices under scrutiny, state monitoring radioactivity
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century 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 differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives. by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Questions concerning equipment purchase practices of the County electric department were brought before the County Commission by the Budget Commission.
No formal action was taken, but commission Chair C. Ray Greene said the “insinuations” made by the budget commissioners did little but “grab headlines” and hurt the reputations of the employees called on to answer for the purchases.
Budget Commissioner Joseph Sessions declared that office equipment for the electric department had been delivered Dec. 12, 1959. Then on Jan. 13 and again on Jan. 15, purchase orders were issued for the equipment in total amounts of $992.40 and $966.15, respectively. The law required that any purchases more than $1,000 be submitted to competitive bidding.
“We felt strongly of the possibility of something doing that was contrary to the law and the best interests of the people of Duval County,” said Sessions. “We don’t know who is at fault, indeed if there is fault. We of the Budget Commission are very concerned about it and were asked to bring it to your attention.”
• Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey warned Frank Tracey to get his “affairs in order” before Tracey would be sentenced July 5 on charges of dealing in obscene material.
The warning, implying a prison sentence, was issued by Harvey after he denied a motion for a new trial for the 63-year-old defendant. The maximum punishment Tracey could receive would be eight years in prison and fines totaling $5,000.
On June 10, Harvey found Tracey guilty of possession of obscene books, films and photographs at Tracey’s novelty shop at 437 W. Bay St. on Sept. 25. He was also found guilty of selling obscene books on Sept. 25. Tracey had waived trial by jury, leaving determination of his guilt or innocence to the judge.
The charges against Tracey were brought by County Solicitor Lacy Mahon Jr. and he was defended by attorney Damon G. Yerkes.
• The Jacksonville Ministerial Alliance extended an invitation to evangelist Billy Graham and his team to appear in the new coliseum Jan. 14 and 15. The two-day crusade would be Graham’s first stop in Florida in 1960 on his way to an extended crusade in Miami.
The churchmen vowed to sponsor the event at their annual luncheon. The ministers and their wives were guests of Robert Kloeppel, who owned the George Washington Hotel. Keynote speaker for the luncheon was Herbert F. Underwood, local businessman and a lay church leader, who regaled those assembled with experiences of local people titled, “It’s Hard to Cheat an Honest Man.”
The anecdotes presented illustrated Underwood’s contention that most people who were cheated or swindled had “a little larceny in their makeup” or were “a little bit greedy.”
• A gift of $30,000 was made to the Permanent Endowment Fund of Jacksonville University by the Independent Life Insurance Company.
The check was delivered by Jacob F. Bryan III, president of the company, to Franklin Russell, general chairman of the university development program. The gift was authorized by the board of directors of the company.
As he made the presentation, Bryan said, “We are keenly aware that an adequate endowment at the university will mean much toward its becoming accredited in 1961. Our gift, along with others who wish to see the endowment increase, will mean that students going to the university will be able to secure their education here at a lesser cost.”
Russell said the endowment fund was part of an overall objective to secure $10 million before 1970, half of which would be used for the permanent endowment and the balance to construct new buildings, modernize equipment and purchase more books for the library.
• Jacksonville was part of a project being carried out by the State Board of Health designed to clear the way for commercial use of nuclear energy in Florida.
Director David Lee said the purpose of the effort was to compile a backlog of data to determine “normal” amounts of radiation in Florida’s water collected from more than 200 stations.
“We need to be able to know, for peaceful purposes, what constitutes normal and abnormal amounts of radioactivity, looking forward to the use of many nuclear reactors in Florida,” he said.
Through the project, which consisted of taking water samples from throughout the state, surface atomic test explosions anywhere in the world could also be detected. It was noted there had been a “lull” in such tests since the project began. It was also noted that following France’s detonation of a nuclear device in the Sahara Desert in late 1959, radioactivity levels in Florida’s water increased.