Momentum continues to grow for the new citizens’ committee in Jacksonville. Moving Jacksonville Forward, an ad hoc citizens’ committee, met for the second time Thursday night. Co-chair Ben cox says he was again pleased with the turnout as well as the chance to merge with another community group that has a similar mission.
“We actually doubled our attendance from our first meeting, with a lot more folks interested in hearing about what we are doing. Tonight we voted to merge with the Revitalize Jacksonville group- Colleen Flinn’s group. So for those folks who have been involved with that, please, you are welcome to show up. We kind of have a centralized purpose with the State Hospital grounds and the homelessness issue as well.”
The initial focus of the committee centers on keeping the Jacksonville Developmental Center Grounds top of mind and what redevelopment of that site would look like now that there is at least acknowledgment from the Pritzker Administration.
Cox says residents in the Jacksonville, South Jacksonville areas and beyond, need to be active and help keep pressure on lawmakers that the state needs to step in and do something with the dilapidated fifty-plus-acre campus. “This isn’t just our legislators’ problem; this is every state legislator, state senator, state representative, and the executive branch of the state- they all need to hear that this is a main problem, and we want to stay on their radar. So I’m drafting a communication letter with all of our state representatives and senators.
Meanwhile, we encouraged everyone in attendance tonight to go on the Governor’s website or call his office and leave comments about the JDC, what we would like to see done, any problems or concerns that they have personally. But mention specifically that we want to see the property remediated, and it’s the state’s responsibility to do it.”
Cox says he was also happy to see Claire Peek from Jacksonville Memorial Hospital in attendance. Peek is working to renew interest in the Homelessness Steering Committee. Cox says the work that the steering committee did in the past is also a main priority of Moving Jacksonville Forward.
“We’re hoping to get all of those stakeholders back in the sandbox so to speak, to help take better care of our homelessness situation. I mean we’ve got numbers all over the place of how many people who are unhoused and are being served here in the city. I see it everyday, I know some others do, and there are safety concerns with JDC.
It all kind of rolls in together; it’s all collateral damage in the end. And if you want to see some kind of action on the homelessness situation, come and visit with us because that is our secondary purpose is to help those folks get in out of the elements and also take care of the safety concerns.”
To find out more information or assist with the committee, go to the Moving Jacksonville Forward Facebook page, or contact Co-Chairs Ben Cox or Rob Thomas, or Committee Secretary Larry Meece.
Moving Jacksonville Forward meets again on Thursday, April 10th at 6:00 pm in the Mayor’s Conference Room at the Jacksonville Municipal Building.