River Regions is being disingenuous.

According its own mission statement, River Region Human Services, is an organization that assists individuals that struggle with "dependency-producing drugs, debilitating mental disorders, involvement in anti-social and criminal activities, and HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases. Nevertheless, it has been selected by the Federal Government to take possession of the historic Jewish Center/Job Corps facility on W. 3rd Street, to be used as a living and treatment facility, despite the fact that this use is precluded by local zoning laws and historic covenants.

In June, four-hundred Springfield residents turned out at Henrietta's Restaurant to tell to federal, state, and local officials what they thought about River Region's plan. No representatives of River Region attended.

At the Mayor's June town hall meeting at the FCCJ campus Downtown, Springfield had another great turnout to learn that the Mayor also did not support River Region's taking over this building. The Mayor promised to form a task force stating that "there could be better use made of the building, one that would better serve the interests of the Springfield community."

On July 11th the Springfield community was seemingly rewarded for its vigilance on this issue when Derya Williams, the CEO of River Region, wrote a letter to the Mayor stating that they had "agreed to suspend its pursuit of the former Job Corps building based on your commitment to assist us in finding comparable accommodations."

In September, Springfield learned that the General Services Administration was still moving forward with rewarding the property because River Regions had never withdrawn their application. Until such a withdrawal occurs, GSA is forced to continue processing the property.

Despite attempts to contact River Region, no answer has been given to Springfield's residents of why River Region has not withdrawn their application. The Mayor's office was also unaware that this was still an issue, as they felt that they had handled the issue and were already working to find a suitable location for River Region.

The Board members of River Region do not seem to care that they have hijacked a neighborhood and its future in this process. They seem to only care that they get what they want, and with their actions they are saying that their word is no good. This is a very obtuse position from an organization that receives the vast majority of its funding from Tax Payer money. If River Region treats the Mayor's office and Springfield this unethically, it frankly makes one wonder how it treats its patients.

Time is running out, if River Region does not withdraw its application for the Historic Jewish Center in the next few weeks, they will be awarded the building, and Springfield's future will once again have suffered at the hands of the City and Federal Governments.

Security in Confederate Park

On Tuesday, Nov 1st, the SPAR parks task force met with Parks and Recreation, DSI security, and JSO. The subject at hand was park security, specifically in Confederate Park. Anyone who has lived in Jacksonville for more than a few minutes knows that the park has crime issues, and has for a very long time.

Since the inception of the taskforce, we have been working on many fronts to simply find answers to questions that have never been asked of the right people. One such question was, what, exactly, is the job of the security officer that sits in the park. A guard who is ultimately paid with taxpayer money

Our main focus was to find out what was expected of that position. DSI has now committed to not only giving us an exact list of what their job is, but they will, at our request, work to enforce the policies we have asked for.

For starters, we have asked that the guard simply enforce park rules. This means no alcohol, no camping, no illegal activity, and no pan handling. Simply enforcing these rules would make a huge difference in our neglected little park. We have also asked that the guard make a reasonable effort to look just outside the fence. It has been clearly left to the bad element in the past. If the guard simply called JSO when he sees feedings, prostitution, or drug activity, this would again make an enormous difference.

In a perfect world this would be easy to enforce and ensure is happening. Sadly, this isn’t a perfect world. Even with a written policy, the trick will be getting the guards to actually adhere to said policy. However, the big difference is that with a policy in place, an issue can be made of the lack of enforcement. We will KNOW that rounds are to be made at every hour to every corner of the park. This means that the people who sit along Hogans Creek and drink beer should be asked to leave; litterers should be asked to pick up their trash. If they are not, we now can clearly hold that guard, and DSI responsible.

This is where you, the community come in. There needs to be a concerted effort to hold these guards accountable. If you are in the park and you see someone with a bottle of beer, go ask the guard. If the guard blows you off or doesn’t take any action, email me with the time and date of the problem at downtownparks@gmail.com, and I will contact the supervisor. We can make these rules stick with a little bit of effort. If these policies and rules are enforced, it will not take very long for our crime problem to move somewhere else.

When there is a written policy in place, it will be posted here. But it will all be for not if we don’t get in there and see what the problems are. If the guard wont act or your don’t have time to confront him, call JSO at 630-0500 and tell them the problem.

Most importantly, take your dogs for walks in the park, or pass by after dinner or on your way to work. It only takes a minute to see what’s going on and make a note of it.

Happenings in the parks

The last two months have been busy for the parks in Springfield. In October the Block Captains and SPAR teamed up with Celebration Church to paint the Hubbard and Market Street Klutho Bridges. In addition to painting, the group cut back the trees and picked up an inordinant amount of litter. Thank you to everyone who participated or donated money.

Speaking of bridge painting, so far our efforts to get the two overpass bridges in Klutho Park, the Pearl and Broad St. Bridges, have been fruitless. Streets and Drainage has told us that they are “no longer in the bridge painting business” and that we should pursue it through a neighborhood effort. While Painting the smaller historic bridges isn’t overwhelming, the effort and equipment needed for the larger bridges makes this unlikely. Other channels are being looked at to get this done. While I would like to praise the Streets and Drainage Dept for painting over the graffiti, the bridges need more TLC.

Parks and Recreation has been doing a better job of keeping up with the baseball diamond in Klutho Park, as well as unearthing a large section of the parks sidewalks in Klutho. Parks and Rec. also had many of the inactive, non-historic cinderblock buildings in the parks removed. The ones that remain are still in use by JEA. If anyone has any ideas of how to make the remaining buildings look nicer, please let us know.

The Parks task force has meet with JSO and DSI security about the situation with criminal activity in Confederate Park. DSI is working on providing SPAR with a list of what it requires of its officers. Among the items we spoke about was simply calling JSO when there is criminal activity in the park. This is also true for Springfield’s residents. It only takes a minute to call 630-0500, and tell them what you saw, and give a brief description. Sometimes we get desensitized to the "petty" crime around us. Don’t fall victim to that habit. When you see something, take the few minutes and call JSO.

As always, use the parks well, and use them often.