• Colliers Dickinson Real Estate Services sent letters to Property Appraiser Jim Overton and Mayor John Peyton inquiring whether the City is interested in buying properties on Adams, Market and Forsyth streets.The Market and Adams properties are adjacent to the former Police and Fire Pension Building on Market and could be used for surface parking or, in the future, as a site for a parking garage according to the firm. Interim Chief Operating Officer Lynn Westbrook is looking into it.
• Jaguars fans, take heart, The tickets you aren’t buying are going to good use. Team owner Wayne Weaver has been giving free tickets to the families of deployed sailors and soldiers.
• A familiar face will be missing from the City Council offices for a few weeks. Audrey Hall, aide to Council member Faye Rustin, is taking a leave of absence.
• Skyway riders are being welcomed aboard with a “Go Jaguars” chant.
• In response to Senate president Jim King’s recommendation that more Better Jacksonville Plan dollars go to local companies, mayor’s office spokesperson Heather Murphy said 71.8 percent of the contract dollars awarded are put back into the local economy. “We’re proud of the fact that local companies have been prominent on Better Jacksonville projects, and that has been accomplished while preserving a legal and competitive bid process,” said Murphy.
• The evolving mayor’s office reorganization ordinance will be clearing out a lot of bureaucratic dead wood, according to Assistant General Counsel Jeanne Miller. For instance: the ordinance will wipe away the City’s Recruiting and Examining and Classification and Compensation divisions from the Administration and Finance Department. The divisions haven’t existed since 1991.
• The Oct. 14 City Council meeting will open with a presentation to Taye Brown’s family. The former equestrian center project manager died recently following an August car accident.
• Members of the Jacksonville Bar Association had a moment of silence before Thursday’s luncheon to honor the memory of former U.S. Rep. Charlie Bennett and longtime Jacksonville attorney Harry Mahon.
• Still no word yet on who may have painted the artwork that was given to Downtown Vision by a homeless woman who had been pushing it around in her cart. DVI would like to include it in the 100 Windows of Art program. There was a possible lead, but it didn’t pan out. One person who examined the painting suggested it may have been held sideways in the Sept. 15 Daily Record photo.
• Retired Circuit Court Judge Bill Maness said Thursday that he hopes his latest book, “I’m Doing the Best I Can,” will be released by the end of the month. His earlier books are “Dear William: The Yeast Is There” and his autobiography, “This Was My Life.