After years of falling into disrepair, a Jacksonville island park in the middle of the St. Johns River is showing signs of improvement.
Exchange Club Island’s namesake service club is hoping planned upgrades will make it a pristine, wild attraction in the heart of downtown.
A water taxi took visitors to the island under the Mathews Bridge on Tuesday.
“When the Mathews Bridge was being constructed, they had to dredge the river, and they needed a place to put the spoils from the river. So, they put it in one spot,” Jacksonville Exchange Club President Brian Smith said. “It used to be called Mud Island, originally because it was an island of mud and spoils. All of this vegetation grew up later on.”
The local Exchange Club has been managing the 34-acre island, accessible only by boat, for almost 60 years.
Recently, that’s meant battling for government preservation funds and undoing the deeds of vandals who routinely leave trash and deface the island’s only monument. In the early ‘70s, the city closed the park because of the rampant defiling. It was only recently reopened to the public.
Despite that, national Exchange Club President Elizabeth Grantham was awed by the man-made island’s beauty Tuesday. She and 600 other club members from around the country are holding their national convention in Jacksonville this week.
“Wow, it’s so cool,” she said. “When we first docked — just seeing all the palm trees and kind of the wilderness thing — I can see families coming out here and camping, you know, doing things together.”
The city built a floating dock on the island last spring, and Exchange Club members hope to add two picnic pavilions with a concrete sidewalk between them. City Chief for Natural and Marine Resources Bob Skalitzky Tuesday confirmed the plans were moving forward.
As the Florida Times-Union reports, the project’s expected to cost more than $180,000, with more than $100,000 coming from the city.
Follow up calls to the Jacksonville Division of Natural Marine Resources about the project's budget were not returned by this story's deadline.
Ryan Benk can be reached at rbenk@wjct.org, 904-358-6319 or on Twitter at @RyanMichaelBenk.
