Plans by the city to spend $155,000 to rent a tent for the annual Memorial Day observance in 2025 drew questions and criticism during a recent City Council Finance Committee budget hearing, with one Council member calling it a waste of city tax dollars.
During the Aug. 15 hearing, Council member Will Lahnen flagged the expense during discussion about the Sports and Entertainment Office’s budget.
“It’s $155,000 to rent that?” Lahnen asked Alex Alston, the office’s executive director.
“It’s a big tent,” Alston replied. “It’s bolted into the ground. It’s a solid structure.”
Alston said the city is planning to build a permanent shade structure at the Veterans Memorial Wall, the site of the city’s Memorial Day event, but in the meantime is relying on rented tents to shelter participants from the sun.
In May 2024, the city issued a building permit to SMG City Events for a 4,900-square-foot tent for the Memorial Wall event.
The rental cost was listed at $130,000 on the permit, which identified the contractor as Charlottesville, Virginia-based Skyline Tent Co. Charlottesville is about 670 miles from Jacksonville.
In response to questions from the Daily Record, the city Public Affairs Office said the rental cost for the tent included shipping it from Virginia and providing wages and overnight lodging for a 15-member crew of installers.
The tent is shipped in two tractor-trailer rigs, the city said, and equipment used to put it in place includes a 60- to 100-ton crane, a forklift and a boom lift. The tent is open-sided and is not air-conditioned, the city said.
The city said the sought bids for the tent and “Skyline Tent company was the only company who submitted an eligible bid response based on the required guidelines.”
Council member Raul Arias told Alston that the city should move quickly on building the shade structure.
“If we’re spending $155,000 on a temporary tent every year, that adds up,” he said. “While it is for a tremendous cause, to recognize and honor, it’s a waste of money for a tent. I could do a lot of good things with $155,000 for our veteran community besides putting up a tent.”
Shading critical
Council member Ron Salem, who chairs the Finance Committee, said shading was a critical need at the event.
“There are people collapsing out there even with the tent,” he said. “It’s 100 degrees and you have a lot of older veterans out there in their 70s and 80s. JFRD is already rescuing people.”
According to climate data from the National Weather Service, the high temperature in Jacksonville was 95 on Memorial Day 2024 and 89 degrees the year before.
Harrison Conyers, director of the city Military Affairs and Veterans Department, said attendees at the Memorial Day event are given bottles of water and hand-held fans. In addition, fans are set up in the tent.
After the Finance Committee discussion, the funding was left in the budget. The committee is nearing the end of seven scheduled hearings to discuss Mayor Donna Deegan’s $1.9 billion 2024-25 general fund budget and her 2025-29 Capital Improvement Plan, which includes $489 million in first-year spending.
After hearings scheduled for Aug. 22 and Aug. 23, the Finance Committee will send up its adjusted version to the full Council, which can make changes before a final vote.
Monument may move
Salem said a complicating factor in building a permanent shade structure at the Veterans Memorial Wall is that there have been discussions about moving the monument from its location west of EverBank Stadium.
Rich Possert, chair of the Veterans Council of Duval County, said he had heard conversations about relocating the wall to the Shipyards West property near the USS Orleck naval museum.
Before making any move, he said, the city should conduct a comprehensive study of the project, including its costs, the potential for damaging the monument and how any damages would be addressed.
According to the city website, the 65-foot-long black granite monument is the second largest of its type behind the national Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The Jacksonville wall was dedicated in 1995 and contains the names of more than 1,700 servicemen and women who died while serving during declared wars dating to World War I. The honorees either listed Jacksonville as their hometown or graduated from a local high school.
The annual Memorial Day event at the wall draws crowds of thousands.