Article v ' Did l
Did
aws u it tr i e rJax's
generosity ?
prompted by Ed Austin's The settlement was called an"in- sonville's sanitary landfill operation
promise to grease the music terlocal agreement" and provided free of any and all charges what
,EtEt �'fsF�Ef' A ipal palms of Neptune Beachiiii that we would pay 18.8 percent less soever." ;t�^�a:EFt� Ftt = t �>tt �
v and Jacksonville Beach with a few * millage to Jacksonville than the rest But all this is history. Now there
dollars for lifeguards and beach {' of the county and be responsible for is a new spirit of cooperation and
cleanup, officials of these two in- . many 'municipal services for fairness guiding Jacksonville's
dependent Beach cities were aha ` ?:;.; ourselves.
relations with its Beach neighbors.
profuse in their praise of the spirit ''` At this point the interlocal Could be. But I suspect that
of cooperation shown by Jackson- agreement looks like a bad deal, Jacksonville Beach and Neptune
ville. but that's another story. Breach received the latest largess
"On behalf of the council, I'm To resume our history lesson, in from Jacksonville because of a new
very thankful for the relationship 1984 the state Legislature provided lawsuit filed against Jacksonville
we developed," declared Jackson- that the Beach cities would get a by Atlantic Beach and the upcom-
ville Beach Mayor Reid Mc- ; : ' share of the hotel bed tax collected ing straw vote on the formation of
Cormick.
within their city limits. It was late Ocean County.
"We've taken the statesman's VVoo :,::.::` in 1986, after two years of corn-> > Austin was lookingfor a wayto
approach,"Jacksonville Beach City
'"'' '`''^ munication had produced nothing, make Atlantic Beach officials look
Manager Bill Lewis proclaimed that the Jacksonville Beach Cit irres
proudly. Y possible for filing litigation
voted not to become part of the Council became frustrated enough claiming that Jacksonville had
"Conversation, not confronts consolidated Jacksonville - Duval to start talking about a lawsuit breached the interlocal agreement
tion, works," said Neptune Beach County municipality. It took a law- Jacksonville Mayor Jake Godbold
Mayor John Kowkabany. suddenl a eed to follow the law. While he claims to have an open
One fervently hopes that these suit and a court order before the Y mind on Ocean County and may
Beach cities were allowed to keep On a similar but unrelated issue,
gentlemen are right in their judge their identities. in 1986 Jacksonville finally refun- not believe the Legislature will take
ment that Jacksonville has a new at- the straw vote seriously, Austin
ded [he fees it had been uollecting would like to staunch the prospect
titude about what is fair and just, Then Jacksonville said we might from the Beach cities for use of the
not to mention legal, toward the have an identity but we would pay county landfill, of a majority of Beach citizens
Beach municipalities. On the other the same taxes as the rest of the It took four years to get this going to the ballot box and voting
hand,our history is full of confron- county. No matter that police, fire money from Jacksonville, in spite to lthw from Duval County.
tation with Jacksonville just to get a and many other municipal services of paragraph 2A of the interlocal Some, perhaps all of us, would
fair share for Beach taxpayers. were being provided by the Beach agreement: "The [Beach] Cities like to believe that our relationship
Let me refresh your memory cities. Another lawsuit, the now shall hereafter have the right and with Jacksonville is simply a matter
with a few items from the past: famous double taxation lawsuit, privilege of depositing their gar- of statesman-like communication.
In 1967 the Beach communities was settled out of court in 1982. bage and refuse in the City of Jack- History teaches a different lesson.