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 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• The Duval County legislative delegation announced it would authorize a $37.50 monthly pay increase for Duval County patrolmen and the hiring of 15 new officers.
Sheriff Dale Carson had asked the delegation to add 76 patrolmen to the existing force of 126 so there would be one officer for every 2,300 residents in the county.
He also had asked for a $50 monthly salary hike for the patrolmen, who were at the time making $4,800.75 annually.
“The salary of road patrolmen must be fixed by legislation as they are in a different category from other County employees who may receive raises from the Board of County Commissioners,” said the delegation about the $37.50 raise, which would be effective July 1.
The delegation pointed out that patrolmen were already behind $25 per month, with reference to pay raises that had been granted to other County employees, and the additional $12.50 would “at least alleviate the situation in the future in the event other County employees were granted a raise.”
Carson’s request for six more captains and 10 additional lieutenants for the patrol was denied by the delegation. “We are more interested in providing Indians than in giving additional chiefs,” said the delegation.
• Two Jacksonville City commissioners declared that their purchase of buildings cleared from the route of the Expressway was “clearly legal” and “in no way contrary” to their duties as public officials.
Commissioners Claude Smith and Louis Ritter interrupted a business trip to New York and returned to Jacksonville for a news conference to amplify testimony they gave two days earlier in Washington before a House highways subcommittee.
Dispatches from Washington quoted the commissioners as testifying they had interests in two dummy corporations which made thousands of dollars through the sale of houses they purchased from contractors on Expressway projects.
The corporations were Re-New Inc. and Salem Houses Inc.
In a joint statement, Ritter and Smith said their interest in Re-New Inc. was worth “about $20,000 apiece and that’s a paper profit. If there are defaults on mortgages, naturally we won’t get $20,000.”
They said Re-New had operated for more than two years and that during that time, Ritter had never received any money from that firm. They said that from Salem, formed in mid-1950, Ritter had drawn only a $500 check as an advance on future earnings. Smith had drawn $5,000 from Re-New, they said, and nothing from Salem.
They said any other funds realized from the sale of structures removed from rights of way had been plowed back into the business to pay the costs of moving the buildings, administrative costs and to rehabilitate three apartment buildings that had been retained and were being sold.
Ritter and Smith said subcommittee investigators had been in Jacksonville for several months to study procedures used by the State Road Department and Expressway Authority in disposing of structures on properties condemned for highway purposes where federal funds had been contributed.
• Fire fanned by strong winds destroyed most of a boardwalk pavilion at Jacksonville Beach. Damage was estimated at $50,000.
All the amusement businesses facing the ocean between Pablo Avenue and First Avenue North were destroyed
Firemen believed the fire started in the middle of the pavilion area, then burned for almost two hours, consuming the wooden buildings.
Police Chief Herman Franks said when he arrived at the scene, he found an amusement operator trying to put out the fire with a small hose. The wind-swept flames quickly spread along the row of wooden buildings and across the wooden canopy.
Franks said the fire was “one of the biggest ever” to hit the resort city.
The area affected had been the subject of much discussion for several years among members of the Jacksonville Beach City Council. Many had recommended tearing down the area and replacing it with new recreation facilities.
• The Duval County Board of Public Instruction took the first step toward establishment of a public junior college in the county.
At its monthly meeting, the board filed a request with the State Board of Education for a survey of the Jacksonville area to determine a feasible location for such an institution.
School Superintendent Ish Brant, who called for the survey, asked that the state educators specifically include in the survey the area around Andrew Jackson High School.
The future of the high school had been the subject of debate for several months following a request from a delegation of parents that the school be moved to another site.
School Board member Martinez Baker said that Duval County qualified “years ago” for a state-supported junior college and “we have not been asleep.”
He said the board decided it would be poor timing (until 1961) to launch plans for a junior college when Jacksonville University was a “struggling young school.”
JU President Franklyn Johnson, when asked to comment on the proposal for a junior college, said, “We will assist them in any way we can. They certainly should make the study and if they find the need for a public junior college, then certainly the need should be filled, but I don’t know if there is such a need or not. Furthermore, how could such an enterprise be financed when the school board already is having such a difficult time finding money for its elementary and secondary schools?”