Finance committee to take up Mayor Deegan’s $25M transformation funding package

The Jacksonville City Council’s Finance Committee on Wednesday will take up Mayor Donna Deegan’s $25 million transformation funding package.

Deegan wants to use federal funds left over from COVID-19 and other city money to pay for programs ranging from housing, public safety, recreation and more.

Before this multi-million-dollar project moves forward, it must be approved by the city council.

Here’s a breakdown of where some of the funds will go:

• $3.5 million will go towards new homeless projects to prevent evictions
• $5.7 million will go towards youth and family services — this includes mental health services along with infant, primary care, and improving literacy
• $1.2 million would go toward making sure local pools are ready for use

You may remember that half of the city pools were shut down this summer due to a lack of maintenance and staffing shortages. The city also dealt with more than 100 vacant lifeguard positions. Lifeguard pay is expected to be included in the budget so that there’s enough staff to keep the pools open next summer.

There’s no final decision on how the $25 million will be spent in its entirety.

That’s up to the city council to decide which is expected to happen sometime next month.