Backers of better education and schools won a victory when the County Budget Commission approved the entire $49 million budget requested by the Board of Public Instruction.
For property taxpayers in the unincorporated areas of the county, it would mean a basic tax rate of $30.54 for each $1,000 of nonexempt value.
Property owners in the city limits would pay a county tax of $29.20 per $1,000.
For weeks before the vote, commissioners appeared to be planning to hold the tax rate at $25 per $1,000 of non-exempt value.
School officials and others, who lobbied for years to get more money for public education, hailed the commission’s unanimous action.
School Superintendent Ish Brant said the action opened “a new era” for public education in Duval County.
The county’s 15 high schools were disaccredited in 1964 by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. That meant a high school diploma did not qualify a graduate for admission to college.
Vincent McGuire, chair of the association’s Florida Committee, agreed with Brant.
“It’s mighty fine. This is just a beginning — a foundation on which they can build,” McGuire said. “I think this is a victory for the people who were interested in bettering the schools. It’s a real example of old-time democracy in action.”
Budget Commission Chair Carl Langston referenced the many hours he and his colleagues spent working with school officials on details of the spending plan.
“We’ve had our battles. It takes real men to come up with this unanimous decision,” he said.
• Responding to the budget approval, after-school salary supplements for teachers were reinstated. Junior high school athletic coaches, band directors and guidance counselors who did not receive supplements in 1965 also were included.
The school board also voted to put into effect salary increases for non-instructional personnel such as clerks, typists and maintenance and custodial workers.
• Called a dream turned into reality, the nucleus of a cultural renaissance and a monument to the future rather than a memorial to the past, the Haydon Burns Public Library was formally dedicated.
More than 1,200 people gathered at the Ocean Street side of the $2.4 million library to witness the ceremonies.
Gov. Haydon Burns, a former mayor of Jacksonville for whom the library was named, said there were few things better than having been blessed with a good name, but to have that name made part of a cultural and educational center was a singular blessing.
“Any man would be proud to have even a street post named after him,” Burns said. “But there could be no better heritage than to have a center of culture and learning, a complex vitally connected with the attaining of knowledge through the public library system, bearing one’s name.”
The new library was the latest in a series of developments that brought nationwide recognition to Jacksonville.
The redevelopment of Downtown, particularly the waterfront, was cited as outstanding by the American Institute of Architects at a meeting of the Florida chapter in Clearwater.
Mayor Lou Ritter said Jacksonville was the only city to receive such a distinction.
Projects recognized were the new Duval County juvenile facility, City Hall, the county courthouse, the Civic Auditorium, the city and county parking lots, the riverfront drive and Dallas Thomas Park and Marina, now Friendship Park.
A document from the institute referenced the economic, social and aesthetic values achieved through the redevelopment of the city’s downtown waterfront area as a center of commerce, culture and government.
• An ordinance granting free library card privileges to all students in Duval County was approved by City Council.
The bill, sponsored by Floor Leader R.B. Burroughs Jr., also expanded the card privilege to students at Edward Waters College and Jacksonville University.
The library card ordinance had its genesis in 1964, when the council increased library card fees for students who didn’t live within the city limits because the county refused to pay a portion of the public library’s $500,000 annual operations cost.
A “gentlemen’s agreement” was worked out whereby the county promised to contribute $80,000 in 1965 toward the library budget and increase the allocation each year. However, facing a shortfall in revenue, the county did not allocate the funds.
Council then decided to restore library service to students living outside the city limits. The service was free for city residents.
• Mrs. H.J. Williford’s neighbors borrowed her dog much like they might borrow a cup of sugar.
Because of his combination of skills, general prowess and companionability, Butch, an 11-year-old chow mix, was a lend-lease dog among the residents of Rochdale Road, where the Willifords and their three children lived.
It was noted that despite being 77 in dog years, Butch was far from retirement. He was too busy shepherding children, protecting neighborhood property, routing reptiles and rodents and keeping traffic down to the proper speed.
In return, Butch got a hefty share of food prepared by almost every resident on the block, at least half of any neighborhood child’s ice cream, candy or cookies and plenty of stroking and pats on the head.
Williford said she was used to the telephone or doorbell ringing with a request for Butch’s services.
Children would ask if he could come out and play. A neighbor whose husband worked evenings, nervous about prowlers rumored to be in the area, would often call to borrow Butch. The dog was dispatched to her front door, where he stood guard until the husband arrived home.
In his five years of residence in the Harborview neighborhood, Butch frightened away a number of peeping Toms, prowlers and would-be burglars with his baritone bark, which rarely was heard at any other time.
Mrs. Roy Manning, who lived next door to the Willifords, recalled an evening in 1964 when she was finishing a late load of laundry. She was guarded by Butch while hanging the garments on the clothesline.
“I had just gone into the house when I heard Butch barking like crazy. I looked out, and even though it was getting pretty dark, I saw Butch streak across the yard after somebody. It looked as if he was snapping at the seat of the man’s pants,” she said.
• Fireworks scheduled for the arrival in Hemming Park of Santa Claus on Thanksgiving evening were canceled when mortars needed for the shooting of the aerial bombs did not arrive.
Nathan Mallison, marshal of the Santa Claus parade, said all other arrangements had been completed.
Members of the Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, sponsors of the event, were so pleased with the turnout that a similar presentation was scheduled for Thanksgiving 1966, Mallison said.
• Frank Taylor Jr., director of client relations for Reynolds, Smith and Hills, was elected president of the Meninak Club of Jacksonville.
Other officers elected were William Colmery Sr., treasurer; Patrick Williams Jr. and J.H. McCormack Jr., directors for three-year terms; and William Rivers Jr., director for a one-year term.