• The building is over a year away from completion, but the Villa Riva condos in Riverside already have been selected as the symphony’s showhouse for 2005.
• Customers of Compass Bank at the Landing found the branch closed Thursday. It was robbed about 10 a.m.
• City Hall phones were jammed Thursday with complaints about a sign advertising an “energy” drink at a local gentleman’s club. Seems the wording of the sign was offensive to many, and they were asking City Council members and the mayor’s office to do something about it. However, an opinion from the General Counsel’s Office says previous court rulings allow that type of advertising.
• Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus performers will demonstrate Saturday at the Museum of Science and History how they use science to juggle, balance and perform acrobatics. Programs are at 11:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.
• A joint meeting of the City Council’s Technology and Finance committees approved a plan to help the State pay for a Branan–Field/Chaffee Road extension and I-10 interchange, but Technology chair Lake Ray said during the Wednesday meeting that he wasn’t sure part of the plan is necessary. Ray questioned Florida Department of Transportation traffic counts that are being used to justify a $35 million widening of 1-10. The City will loan the State $17 million for the project. The FDOT’s Larry Parks told Ray that it was the Federal Highway Administrations’s call. “They hold the cards,” said Parks. “If we want the interchange, they can get us to do what they want.”
• Council member Faye Rustin has a new assistant, and his name may sound familiar: Mike Tolbert, but not that Mike Tolbert, the political consultant.
• Council member Reggie Fullwood was careful not to pick New Year’s resolutions he couldn’t fulfill. Fullwood, promised himself he would “strive to be better about being on time.”
• Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani, the permanent representative of Singapore to the United Nations in New York, is the speaker at Monday’s Rotary Club of Jacksonville meeting at the Omni.