Willow Branch canal to see improvements

Posted on May 1, 2020 By Editor Neighborhood News, Riverside, Avondale, Ortega, Murray Hill

The City of Jacksonville plans to rehabilitate the Willow Branch canal, which runs from Southwest from St. Johns Avenue to Olga Street.

The City of Jacksonville has begun a program to rehabilitate Willow Branch canal that will hopefully finish by this fall. Construction is one of the few industries that haven’t been held up with the Coronavirus closures, and neighbors say the City is moving forward with replacing the bulkhead and plans to plant new trees. The canal runs southwest through Willow Branch park and through neighborhoods on both sides of the park.

Richard Ceriello, a community activist who is involved in multiple projects to beautify the park, including a planned AIDS Memorial project and reforestation efforts along the canal, said he was happy to see even more beautification of the area. “We welcome the attention and beautification of this historic gem in the historic district,” he said. “We continue to work to recreate a more naturalistic flow of the creek, which is home to a variety of aquatic life, as the rest of the park remains a wooded island to God’s other creatures.”

By Jennifer Edwards
Resident Community News