After spending as much as $155,000 annually to rent a temporary canopy for the annual Memorial Day observance at the Veterans Memorial Wall, the city of Jacksonville will invest in a permanent shade cover under legislation recently approved by the City Council.
Ordinance 2024-0939 will provide $202,381 toward the design and engineering of a cover for the seating area at the Memorial Wall, located immediately west of EverBank Stadium.
Council approved the ordinance on an 18-0 vote Jan. 14, with member Terrance Freeman not present. The item was part of the consent agenda, having also been unanimously approved in committees.
Council member Chris Miller spearheaded the legislation, which 15 other members cosponsored.
In August 2024, plans by the city to rent a canopy for the Memorial Day observance raised eyebrows among Council members, who questioned the cost. Council member Raul Arias said that while putting up the shade structure “is for a tremendous cause,” he considered it 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,” he said.
Miller, in comments that preceded the Jan. 14 vote, called the ordinance an example of the Council coalescing in support of the active military members and veterans in Jacksonville.
“I think many times we work together across the aisle, we’re making things happen, and 99% of what we do every day and every night never gets any attention,” he said. “But then when one bill doesn’t go someone’s way, then you’d think we’re not working together to get the people’s business done. And that’s so not right, because we do.”
Miller commended Council member Will Lahnen for helping fund the measure. Lahnen, who represents Council District 3, contributed $76,000 allotted to Council members for strategic initiatives.
Both Miller and Lahnen are veterans, with Miller having served in the Army and Lahnen in the Navy.
Lahnen said during a Jan. 29 interview that he provided the funding as part of a goal to support veterans and military personnel and propel Jacksonville’s growth by making it the nation’s most friendly city to those individuals.
He said he had provided $70,296 to the University of North Florida Veterans Resource Center but had identified no other needs in District 3 for the remainder of the funding for Council initiatives, which would revert to the city’s general fund if not used.
Miller commended Lahnen for “putting additional funding on top of the funding I had identified so that we could save taxpayer dollars” on the annual rental of canopies.
Officials say shade is not just a matter of comfort at the Memorial Day observance, but is needed to protect participants from suffering heat-related health problems.
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.
The event draws thousands of participants, including elderly veterans. Participants are provided with water at the event, and fans are set up in the canopy.
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.
According to the city website, the 65-foot-long black granite monument is the second largest of its type to the 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.