JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The city of Jacksonville is forming a task force to address the Phoenix Area Pedestrian Safety Improvement Project after residents raised concerns about more than $1.6 million in unused infrastructure funds.<\/p>\n
The initiative was originally funded with $2.5 million in the 2018\u20132019 fiscal year budget to build sidewalks and improve safety on Jacksonville\u2019s east side.<\/p>\n
The project funding was approved under former Mayor Lenny Curry\u2019s administration. City officials confirmed that $887,441 of the original budget has been spent on sidewalk improvements to date, leaving approximately $1.6 million remaining for additional work.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Kim Black, an Eastside resident who grew up in Jacksonville, began asking city leaders about infrastructure funding while being considered for a local grants program. \u201cNot any of the councilmen that I asked the question could answer that question for me,\u201d Black said. <\/p>\n She noted that pedestrian improvements are necessary for families who navigate the area daily. \u201cI drive these streets every day, taking my daughter to Springfield Middle School in the neighboring neighborhood,\u201d Black said. \u201cSo yeah, we have money that we could spend to improve walkability on the east side.\u201d<\/p>\n Other local residents voiced similar concerns regarding neighborhood infrastructure and child safety. Samone Holmes, a Phoenix area resident, said sidewalks and playgrounds in the community need attention. \u201cI feel like it should be safer for the kids because everybody around here got small kids,\u201d Holmes said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n In response to community inquiries, the city stated that it plans to assemble a task force to move the project forward. The group will include Phoenix-area residents, local business owners, Public Works personnel and Planning Department staff. City officials confirmed they still intend to direct the remaining project funds toward Phoenix neighborhood improvements. <\/p>\n \u201cThe community deserves the improvements that the city funded,\u201d Black said. \u201cThe community has waited long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n City officials plan to meet with the community next month to discuss the task force and project implementation.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The city of Jacksonville is forming a task force to address the Phoenix Area Pedestrian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7840,695,73500,10455,16004,15067,969,116,118,117,58888,103295,163925,163924,13663,634,1375,115,26718,504,163927,163926,7842],"class_list":["post-413758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ben_becker","tag-black","tag-cbs_47","tag-east","tag-east_side","tag-fox","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jasmine","tag-jasmine_butler","tag-kim_black","tag-leeside","tag-lenny_curry","tag-local","tag-mayor","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-safety","tag-simone_holmes","tag-springfield_middle_school","tag-tanika_hughes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413758","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=413758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}