{"id":143389,"date":"2026-02-04T14:35:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143389\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T14:35:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T14:35:10","slug":"controversial-hologram-removed-from-jax-after-agreement-ends-deegan-says-partisan-attacks-were-unfair-to-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/143389\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial hologram removed from JAX after agreement ends, Deegan says \u2018partisan attacks\u2019 were unfair to airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A controversial hologram that stood at the Jacksonville International Airport for months has been removed<\/a> after the agreement between the city and the airport expired on Sunday, according to Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan.<\/p>\n

Deegan said the proto box was part of a \u201cpilot project\u201d to test the hologram technology, and the city had a six-month agreement with JIA to showcase it.<\/p>\n

In a statement sent to News4JAX, the Mayor\u2019s Office also addressed the controversy surrounding the hologram.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdditionally, it was unfair to the airport to be subject to constant hyper-partisan attacks,\u201d Deegan said.<\/p>\n

The hologram was heavily criticized not only by some council members but also by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida\u2019s Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, who called it an example of \u201cwasteful spending.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hologram, which stood inside the airport terminal, was a digital display system that greeted travelers and provided information about the facility. Deegan said it was part of airport operations and not wasteful, while Ingoglia mocked it as \u201c$75,000 of waste, fraud and abuse,\u201d even dubbing it \u201cDonna Deegan\u2019s TSA \u2014 Taxes Squandered Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED | \u2018Unfortunate that it\u2019s been made a political tool\u2019: Deegan speaks on airport hologram, says removal is Wi-FI related<\/a><\/p>\n

In early January, Deegan said \u201cit\u2019s unfortunate\u201d that the box had been made into a \u201cpolitical tool,\u201d and defended the investment in the technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe that hologram cost $29,000, and I know there\u2019s some additional money to maintain the contract, but at the end of the day, we\u2019re talking about a handful of dollars that I believe keeps us on the cutting-edge of technology,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re talking about a $29,000 expenditure out of a $9 million budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the statement sent to News4JAX on Tuesday, the mayor also said that the proto box has been returned to the City while they explore \u201cadditional public education projects for the Public Works Department.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A controversial hologram that stood at the Jacksonville International Airport for months has been removed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5890,116,118,117,2816],"class_list":{"0":"post-143389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-donna-deegan","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news","12":"tag-jax"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}