Jacksonville mayor wants city to spend nearly $1M for mosquito control helicopter

Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has a nearly $1 million plan to help keep local families safe from Zika.

Part of the budget proposal he pitched to City Council on Monday includes buying a third mosquito control helicopter.

“Given insect-borne viruses like Zika – and even before that, we had Nile – we need to make sure that we’re doing everything we can in Florida, particularly here in Jacksonville, to make sure that our people are safe,” said Curry.

He said the two current mosquito-spraying helicopters the city owns are so old, they’re uninsurable.

One is 42 years old, and the other is 22 years old.

The component parts for both choppers are no longer being made.

“This is about public safety,” said Curry.

It costs the city more than $37,000 a year to maintain those two helicopters.

Matthew Livingston is not a fan of Jacksonville’s mosquitoes, but he said he’s not sure he wants his tax dollars paying for a helicopter to spray for them.

“I don’t know why, but they’re personally attracted to my blood, for whatever reason. So I get attacked all the time,” said Livingston. “I don’t think it’s a bad idea, it’s just, what’s the cost of getting a helicopter on top of – I mean, I’m sure it’s not a cheap thing to do.”

A Mayor’s Budget Review Committee document Action News Jax got from the city estimated it will cost the city more than $922,000 for the new helicopter, training, supplies and parts.

The agency St. Johns County hires to do its mosquito control contracts with a helicopter company to spray for mosquitoes as needed. They budget about $300,000 a year for it.

Curry said he doesn’t feel comfortable outsourcing public safety.

“Say something changes in the weather pattern, and we need to immediately deploy and spray. We need to have control over that. We need to make sure that we can get it done,” said Curry.

The Mayor’s Budget Review Committee recommended the city still keep its two current helicopters as back-ups.