{"id":387593,"date":"2026-09-01T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387593\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T22:14:09","slug":"jacksonville-city-council-forms-special-committee-on-drowning-prevention-following-recent-deaths-of-2-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/387593\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville City Council forms special committee on drowning prevention following recent deaths of 2 children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council President announced a special committee to address drowning prevention across the city, following two drowning deaths involving children with autism in August.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/08\/25\/jacksonville-council-member-seeks-retention-pond-safety-after-2-children-with-autism-drown-within-weeks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.news4jax.com\/news\/local\/2026\/08\/25\/jacksonville-council-member-seeks-retention-pond-safety-after-2-children-with-autism-drown-within-weeks\/\">[RELATED: Jacksonville council member seeks retention-pond safety after 2 children with autism drown within weeks]<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Council President Nick Howland established the Special Committee on Drowning Prevention after Councilman Reggie Gaffney, Jr. called on the council to examine what steps the city could take to reduce drowning risks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cWe cannot eliminate every risk around water,\u201d Howland said. \u201cBut where there are practical, commonsense solutions that can prevent a tragedy and save a life, we have an obligation to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Howland says the committee will take a comprehensive look at drowning prevention across Jacksonville, with a particular focus on retention ponds and stormwater facilities. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Its work will include examining available data on drownings, reviewing existing water safety education efforts, evaluating risks for children with autism, assessing current prevention methods in Jacksonville and other communities, and recommending public information strategies and potential legislative action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Gaffney will chair the committee, which also includes Council Members Tyrona Clark-Murray and Mike Gay. The committee is expected to submit its final report to the Neighborhoods Committee by Dec. 31, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cThe goal is not simply to study the problem,\u201d Howland said. \u201cIt is to identify practical, effective measures that can save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Jacksonville City Council President announced a special committee to address drowning prevention across the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2805,116,118,117,2808],"class_list":["post-387593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-drowning","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-retention-pond"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387593","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=387593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}