JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – While it’s not a done deal, work continues and it seems a new Medical Examiner’s office and morgue are going to be built in a Brentwood neighborhood despite a fight from community leaders.
The group is not only upset with the morgue but with what’s happening to the property next door -- a liquor store the city is considering paying $1.8 million to buy.
Legislation the Jacksonville City Council is considering said the purchase of the property with the newly built liquor store is for a Brentwood community center.
But the legislation said it could also be part of the office complex for the morgue.
The neighborhood association said it is just using the name “Brentwood” to make this look like the city is doing the right thing.
Lydia Bell, who represents the Metro Garden Neighborhood Association, has been fighting this issue since it first became known a morgue and liquor store were moving in. She said it’s the public building that’s worrisome because part of it could be used for office space for the morgue.
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“Why are you calling it the Brentwood community center? Don’t pee on me and tell me it’s rain. We are tired of that,” Bell said.
Bell said a neighborhood bill of rights that the city passed 28 years ago was not followed. That bill of rights says neighborhoods should be notified of zoning and public projects, but Bell said that never happened under Mayor Lenny Curry’s watch.
News4JAX later discovered that the neighborhood bill of rights never actually made it into city law.
Now Mayor Donna Deegan’s staff says it is trying to work with the group.
“I believe that we’ve done our due diligence in terms of going through and meeting with the community members offering up opportunities to engage with them. I feel like we’ve followed what we need to follow through the ordinance code,” said Kelli O’Leary, who works in the mayor’s office.
But until the project gets final approval by the council, Bell and her group are not giving up.
“I wish the word was cheated,” she said. “But it’s more bamboozled, hoodwinked, robbed, disrespected, and every other violation that you can think of.”
News4JAX also checked with the Urban League, which said it may be too late to stop the ME office, but the neighborhood bill of rights needs to be codified so citizens have the chance to speak out.