{"id":395627,"date":"2026-09-10T08:01:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395627\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:01:04","slug":"jacksonville-city-council-committee-begins-work-on-drowning-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/395627\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville City Council committee begins work on drowning prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A new Jacksonville City Council committee focused on drowning prevention<\/a> held its first meeting Wednesday as city leaders began examining ways to prevent future tragedies.<\/p>\n

RELATED: JSO investigating after 3-year-old girl with autism drowns on Jacksonville\u2019s Northside<\/a><\/p>\n

The committee plans to discuss emergency response data and the location of retention ponds across the city in the coming weeks. Members said Jacksonville does not yet have a complete picture of how many public and private retention ponds exist or which ones pose the greatest risks.<\/p>\n

The committee wants to identify ponds near schools, playgrounds and sidewalks before deciding what changes may be needed.<\/p>\n

Residents who spoke at the meeting said more should be done to make the ponds safer. Suggestions included installing fences, barriers, sensors and cameras.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should have sensors on those ponds or we should have cameras,\u201d one resident said. \u201cWhen we ride throughout Jacksonville, Florida, we\u2019ve got cameras everywhere. There\u2019s no more privacy. So why not make the people who own these apartments \u2014 the city that\u2019s on these retention ponds \u2014 put these cameras on? It\u2019s a quick fix.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jacksonville family demands action on retention pond safety following toddler\u2019s drowning death<\/a><\/p>\n

Councilman Reggie Gaffney said the meeting was an important first step but acknowledged that the committee cannot solve the issue in one night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think today\u2019s meeting was impactful,\u201d Gaffney said. \u201cWe had a lot of great conversation, a lot of great dialogue, a lot of great turnout. We can\u2019t solve this thing in one night, but I think it went well. I\u2019m very encouraged by the meeting today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 23. Members plan to review data about retention ponds and continue discussions about drowning prevention.<\/p>\n

St. Johns County Water Management representatives attended Tuesday\u2019s meeting and were asked to provide information about the number of public and private retention ponds in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Committee members also want to connect with organizations that work with children with autism and other special needs. They hope to learn more about how many children in those communities live in Jacksonville and where they are located to help inform prevention efforts.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s work comes as city leaders take a closer look at drowning deaths in Jacksonville this year and what can be done to prevent another tragedy.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A new Jacksonville City Council committee focused on drowning prevention held its first meeting Wednesday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2805,116,118,117],"class_list":["post-395627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-drowning","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395627","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=395627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}