• The mayor’s former press secretary, Sharon Ashton, scored her first big catch as a public relations agency boss (she heads the Boardwalk Group) Friday when she landed the Jacksonville Transportation Authority marketing account. To finance the outsourcing, the JTA dropped its top p.r. and marketing people, including the highly-regarded Marci Larson.
• The Jacksonville Women’s Lawyers Association has started a “Woman Lawyer of the Year” award. First recipient: former Florida Coastal School of law professor Linda Calvert-Hanson.
• The next project for the folks who are trying to restore Memorial Park in Riverside is to recreate two large eagle statues which were on the gateposts. They have 1933 photos of the eagles, which seem to be about five feet high and which disappeared around 1940. Cost for the two statues: $20,000.
• School Board member Martha Barrett is a big shot in another school system. She’s the new president of the local community college’s Foundation.
• Big move: Chuck Diebel, the general manager of Koger Equity, to The Auchter Company as executive vice president.
• The Landing is adding two more tenants. South Florida businessmen are hoping to put Quench, a nightclub with an Ocean Club flavor, in the space above Ruby Tuesdays. The individuals behind Two-tini, a martini bar, are also negotiating a lease for space, specifically the spot vacated by Bourbon Street on the courtyard. Landing officials expect plans to be finalized within a couple of weeks with tentative openings around the end of July or August.
• Friday the 13th will be a little less scary for some this year. Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, an organization out of Portland similar to the Make a Wish Foundation but for dying breast cancer patients, is holding a charity wedding gown sale Friday and Saturday at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Donated dresses will be sold, with all the proceeds going towards their dream fulfillment fund.
• Former Tri-Star Pictures vice president and Mayor-elect Peyton campaign worker Joseph Kennedy wants to be considered for the next chief of the Jacksonville Film and Television Office. The JEDC department provides incentive packages to production companies that film in the city; Todd Roobin is the current chief.
• The Downtown Council’s Downtown Enhancement Committee will be painting paw prints on Bay Street on August 2. They’ll have to start from scratch, since the street has been repaved.
• Claire Cardina, the Tampa-based consultant hired by the City to study our municipal records, will be in town on Wednesday to submit a report with her findings. She’s identified around 2,500 square feet of archival records.
• Big to-do on Thursday evening at Cecil Commerce Center. The master developer, the TriLegacy Group, will reveal its marketing plans for the center.
• Your airport’s daily parking rates will rise a buck starting Sunday.
• Jags’ Coach Jack Del Rio will have a place to cool off after the hot summer practices. He’s getting a swimming pool at his new home.
• The annual City Council office shuffle won’t come until the end of this month but several are already getting ready. Sandra Henderson, the aide of President Jerry Holland, was packing boxes Friday. “I do this almost every year and this time I’m going to be ahead of the game,” she said.