Article Courtesy of News4Jax
By Jennifer Ready
Published June 10, 2021
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JACKSONVILLE – Hours after the body of 4-year-old Gavin Douyon was found in a
retention pond in a Northside neighborhood, Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie
Gaffney said he plans to explore the possibility of passing legislation that
would require fences to be added around retention ponds in new planned
communities.
Gaffney said something
needs to be done to prevent future tragedies from happening.
A similar incident happened in April when a missing
5-year-old Jacksonville boy Mohamad Waleen Mohamad Nour, who
had autism and was nonverbal, got out of his home. He was
later found dead in a retention pond.
“I think at some point if I can, or one of us [councilmembers]
come out with legislation to mandate, and in the future when
new associations and homes built that maybe they start
putting some barriers around it for protection, but those
are conversations that we got to keep having,” Gaffney told
News4Jax.
The District 7 representative said education is also a key
to preventing future tragedies and he called on private
homeowner’s associations that have retention ponds to look
into fencing options.
Gaffney said he will continue to have
conversations with city engineers and developers to see what
else can be done to make the ponds safer. |
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Gaffney mulls requiring fences for ponds in new
communities after child’s death.
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For a year and a half, councilwoman LeAnna Cumber and councilwoman Ju’Coby
Pittman said they have been working on a retention pond safety campaign,
which would include educating children and families of the dangers and
potentially pushing for stricter regulations.
“We had a meeting less than a month ago to come up with more plans and ideas
of how we can educate the community, educate our kids, as well as working
with HOAs and apartment complexes to let them know how dangerous these
retention pods are especially for our kids,” Pittman told News4Jax on
Tuesday. “This is heartbreaking, and I wish, you know, we could do more, but
our efforts are to make sure that we’re standing by each other and aligned
with each other to educate our community about how serious this issue is.”
Pittman said Jacksonville may need help from state and federal legislators
to bring real change.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Tuesday applauded the work done so far by
council members.
“My heart goes out to the Douyon family on the tragic loss of their beloved
son, Gavin,” Curry tweeted. As our community mourns, I commend the work
underway by City Council members to increase awareness of the potential
hazards of retention ponds to help prevent future tragedies.”
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