By Matt Galnor
Times-Union staff writer

A recent proposal that may shift City Hall funding from drainage improvements to park construction could put projects on hold in Jacksonville's older neighborhoods.

Preliminary lists show $8.8 million of $22 million now proposed for park projects is potentially leaving an urban district with chronic drainage woes.

City Councilman Reggie Fullwood, who represents that district, says drainage needs -- including $7.1 million that had been planned for areas near McCoy's Creek -- should take priority over new soccer fields and baseball diamonds.

"What's the bigger need, what's the bigger priority? To me, it's drainage and people getting flooded in their homes," Fullwood said, leafing through pictures constituents have given him, one of a woman waist-deep in water in her Murray Hill street. "If I can't get out of my house to get to a park, that's a problem."

None of the funding, which comes from a proposed $90 million bond issue, is near finalized, and further changes are expected.

Two weeks ago, council President Matt Carlucci and Mayor John Delaney proposed boosting the money for parks in the bond issue from $13 million to as much as $35 million. That would trim the $65 million, which Delaney proposed for drainage projects in his July budget address, down as low as $43 million.

The City Council is expected to vote on the bond issue -- once projects and their costs are listed -- in October or November.

Carlucci, who made improving the city's parks system a top priority when taking over the council presidency in July, said he and Delaney had discussed the city's need for more active parks -- such as soccer fields and baseball and softball diamonds.

"To me, it's a balancing act here," Carlucci said. "We've got a very fast growing city with young families and we really need better parks with more recreation opportunities for them."

The city's Public Works department has several working lists for the drainage projects to be funded by the proposed bond issue, said Lynn Westbrook, deputy director of Public Works. One list includes about $90 million in drainage projects that serves as a type of wish list for projects if there was an infinite source of funds.

Another list shows projects that could be done with $65 million and a third shows potential work to be done with $43 million for drainage. None of the lists have been approved by Delaney and would also require council approval.

When the drainage list is pared to $43 million, Fullwood's district loses three projects and $8.9 million.

Drainage problems surfaced this weekend as Tropical Storm Gabrielle dumped nearly a foot of rain in some parts of the city, flooding streets where some residents have come to expect the standing water.

"If it rains, we just stay inside the house," said Albert Ziegler, who has lived for about five years on Green Street, an area near McCoy's Creek that, at this point, is one of the projects that could be cut if dollars are shifted to recreation. "We've come to expect them to do nothing.

"When this city starts to talk about improving things, we've come to expect that it will happen somewhere else."

City leaders say they try and direct funding to all areas of the city and there isn't one side of town that gets overlooked.

"The intent is not to pull them out of the northwest part of the county, the intent is to spread them over the entire county," said Sam Mousa, the city's chief administrative officer, who also said he had no knowledge of a $65 million project list.

"When I sat down and talked with the mayor about this, we were not pulling any money away from any projects," Carlucci said.

Fullwood and Delaney are scheduled to meet this week to talk about Fullwood's concerns on the shift in funding.

"I don't understand why you would take money away from projects in the areas of the city that need it the most," Fullwood said.

Carlucci said he understands Fullwood's concerns but adds there will be more than $100 million headed toward drainage and that a quality parks system is also a "basic need." He points to $70 million for drainage work in the Better Jacksonville Plan, along with the proposed $43 million in this potential bond issue.

"There are priorities all over the county," Mousa said. "There are priorities for drainage, there are priorities for parks, there are priorities for fire stations.

"It's all a balancing act of what you have to do for the entire county."

The older, urban areas in the Northwest quadrant of the city have historically battled drainage problems -- problems the newer, growing areas don't have.

In 1989, three council members walked out of a City Council meeting -- and were subsequently arrested -- protesting former Mayor Tommy Hazouri's budget that did not include adequate drainage funding.

Delaney has tried to tackle the problem, pushing a $66 million bond issue for drainage work in 1997. He earmarked more than half of those drainage funds -- more than $34 million -- for the four urban council districts, including $15.8 million to the district Fullwood was elected to represent in 1999.

Wherever the total for drainage from the proposed bond issue falls, about $12.4 million will be needed to pay for work not yet completed from the 1997 bond issue. About $11.8 million is needed to finish projects in the four urban districts.

The remainder on the $65 million list, about $52.6 million, was proposed to be spent on 24 projects. Ten of those projects -- including the most expensive one, a $5 million proposed drainage overhaul in Newtown which Fullwood represents -- are missing from the newly revised $43 million list.

Even with the pared down list, Fullwood's district is still getting the most money of the 14 council districts with $5.2 million for two projects. Another urban district, represented by Councilwoman Pat Lockett-Felder, has the next highest amount on the tentative list, with $3.3 million for a project near Hogan's Creek.

Districts represented by Councilmen Doyle Carter and Warren Alvarez, both areas meshed with suburban development and rural areas, also each lost two projects in the potential cuts. Carter's two projects requires a total of $4.2 million and Alvarez's are projected at $2.7 million.

"How can you say that somebody's house that floods in District 9 is more important than somebody's house that floods in District 8 or 12 or 13 or any district? You can't," Westbrook said. "All you can really do is look at the problems county-wide and address those problems as best you can, and those problems are in every district."