The second death this month in Jacksonville of a child who wandered into a retention pond comes as City Council member Reggie Gaffney Jr. explores creating safety-related regulations on those ponds for reducing the risk of drownings.
"I'm devastated," Gaffney said Aug. 24 after the death of a 3-year-old child in a Northside pond off Max Leggett Parkway. "It's heartbreaking to continue to see children lost to these retention ponds. As a legislator, I just can't sit back and do nothing."
Gaffney had already scheduled an Aug. 25 meeting to start exploring what steps the city can take. He had decided to schedule that meeting after a 7-year-old was found in a different Northside retention pondafter being reported missing.
"My biggest fear is that I
get another call like I got last week," Gaffney told fellow council members during their Aug. 11 meeting.
Then the Aug. 24 call came about the 3-year-old girl who drowned.
"It's getting too close to home," he said. "It could be our family members, our friends. I think it's our responsibility to do something. We need to act now."
Gaffney said he does not have any specific proposals at this time. He said he wants to bring together representatives of homeowners associations, builders, developers and the health department to come up with solutions.
Mayor Donna Deegan will work with Gaffney on what steps the city can take, city spokesman Phil Perry said.
"We are heartbroken for the families who have lost children in accidental drownings this month," he said. "Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration welcomes a community-wide discussion about how to better protect kids from unsecured bodies of water, especially on privately-owned property where tragedies have been happening. We thank Councilman Reggie Gaffney Jr. for leading this effort and we will work with him to explore potential policy solutions."
Deegan fielded a question about the the safety of retention ponds during a town hall meeting this month at Ribault High School.
"I just want to know what's going on, what's the problem, what's the solution," a resident asked.
Public Works Director Nina Sickler told town hall attendees the city has allowed vegetation to grow up around city-owned ponds so it creates a natural buffer that dissuades children from continuing into the water.
She said the deaths that have occurred in ponds since Deegan became mayor have been in privately owned ponds, so there isn't a way for the city to directly put up such barriers up around those ponds.
"Right now, there's not a code requirement we can impose on those private property-owners," Sickler said.
Both of the drownings this month occurred at privately owned ponds.
Gaffney said when it comes to safety, he doesn't think there should be a distinction based on ownership of ponds when lives are at stake.
"So I think we need to have a unified approach in tackling this issue," he said.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said retention ponds pose a danger when people go in them because they can have steep slopes and quickly become deep.
"While this case is still under investigation, it is a tragic reminder of the dangers of water, especially for children with autism," the Sheriff's Office said.
City Council members in 2021 called for a safety awareness campaign about the potential hazards posed by ponds. The city also moved to create the vegetative buffer around its ponds.
City Council member Ju'Coby Pittman, who was among the council members working on that issue five years ago, said at the Aug. 11 council meeting that there were meeting at that time with developers.
"I think it's time to pick that up again and I would urge all of you if we can to come together and develop some legislation because retention ponds are everywhere," Pittman said. "It's kind of out of out sight, out of mind if you don't hear anything but this is really, really serious, especially for the kids who have autism."
The meeting convened by Gaffney is scheduled for 2 p.m. Aug. 25 at Jacksonville City Hall, 117 W. Duval St.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Councilman wants safer ponds after second death of child this month
