City Notes

News

• Alltel Stadium may have plenty of green and gold tonight when the Jaguars play the Green Bay Packers. It’s the only Florida visit this year for the Packers, who have played at least one game in the state every year since 1988. The Packers were in the same division as Tampa Bay until 2002, and last year the schedule worked out that they played an interdivisional game in Tampa.

• After hearing the City’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund may evolve into a low interest loan program, City Council member Suzanne Jenkins balked. “It’s a bad idea and when we created it that wasn’t the intention,” she said. “If we’re trying to keep it funded, we should find a place for it in our budget instead.”

• Plans for the new Duval County Courthouse hit another stumbling block Thursday afternoon when the JEDC’s Design Review Committee failed to approve the recently tweaked design. Approval must now come from the Downtown Development Authority.

• The president of Ponte Vedra Beach retail developer Sofran Group did some quick calculating on Mayor John Peyton’s plan for the new County Courthouse. Robert Rouleau told Peyton in a letter that the City would pay about $300 a square foot, “which means that this building should be built out of gold or granite entirely.”

• U.S. Marshal Thomas Hurlburt thanked Peyton for the City’s help with the July 15 Critical Incident training exercise at the U.S. Courthouse at Jacksonville. Hurlburt said the City helped the marshals evacuate 250 employees, resolve a WMD attack and conduct a simulated arrest all in a few hours.

• The Sept. 1 Artwalk will mark the debut of 12 decorative manatee sculptures destined for display around downtown. The program has been dubbed the “Sea Cow Splashdown,” and will feature 12 sculptures to be unveiled at Hemming Plaza at 5:30 p.m. The rest of the “herd” will be introduced throughout the month.

• Apologies to Riverside/Avondale Preservation chair Trip Stanly. We misspelled his name in a story Thursday.

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