• With a little financial assistance — $2,900 — from City Council, the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission has printed 6,000 full-color brochures on downtown historic preservation. The brochures describe the four basic incentive packages available for those wanting to rehab old buildings and includes a fold-out map with 74 named locations.
• City Council member Suzanne Jenkins wasn’t exactly rewarded for being a veteran Council member by Council prez-elect Lad Daniels when he assigned her to standing committees. Her response? To abruptly decline to serve as either chair or a member of the Value Adjustment Board. Word is she’s also pretty hot about the lack of women and minorities named chairs of committees.
• A downtown institution is changing addresses. Gus & Company Shoe Repair is moving from its spot in the Elks Building to a new location nearby. Details should be finalized by Monday.
• JEDC chairman Tom Petway stopped the commission’s meeting Wednesday to present Mayor John Delaney with a gift, a copy of a complimentary editorial and a resolution thanking him for his “vision, guidance and leadership.” Delaney responded, saying the JEDC, his 1996 brainchild, has been a “wonderfully run investment to the city.” Delaney received a standing ovation as he exited the meeting.
• It appears construction has started at the old Roosevelt Hotel on West Adams Street. Workers were doing some clean-up at the site Wednesday, which the Vestcor Companies will renovate and transform into The Carlington, a high-rise residential tower.
• Though no longer with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Marci Larson and Stephanie Barker met with organizers of the Skyway Party to discuss ways of improving a future Skyway event. Larson and Barker are two of the three members of JTA’s communications and marketing department who recently lost their jobs when JTA signed their communications over to The Boardwalk Group.
• The United Way is holding a bake sale Friday from 7:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. in front of the Florida Theatre.
• Construction on the new Jacksonville Beach Pier may get underway soon. The City has received word from the Department of Environmental Protection that permits are forthcoming, as is the submerged land lease. One thing left before construction: the City has to advertise the project for 14 days. No complaints and it’s full steam ahead.
• The Chamber will host a meet and greet for its members and Mayor-elect John Peyton. It’s June 26 from 10:30 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. in the Chamber’s Hadlow Boardroom.
• The City’s Neighborhoods Department is hosting half a dozen special guests Friday. Six women from Armenia Azerbaijan will meet with members of the Mayor’s Commission on the Status of Women in the large conference room at 3 p.m.
• The Whalebone Grill is now open for lunch and dinner in Five Points on Park Street. The menu features plenty of seafood.
• The Regency Wood homeowners association in Arlington requested a school rezoning request be postponed from City Counsel consideration because their lawyer, Patrick McCormack, was called up for reserve duty in the Persian Gulf. The Council’s Land Use and Zoning Committee heard the proposal anyway.