• Audrey Moran, former chief of staff for Mayor John Delaney, has been appointed to the Baptist Medical Center Board of Directors. She’ll serve a three-year term.
• There’s some remodeling going on in the City Council offices. Council assistants are getting new office furniture and their work stations are being aligned so they are in closer proximity to their Council member.
• An interchange reconstruction project at Martin Luther King Parkway and 8th Street is set to begin Thursday, says Mike Goldman of the Florida Department of Transportation. The interchange and ramp will be expanded, giving port-bound vehicles better access. The parkway is a major thoroughfare for commercial traffic from I-95 and from the Hart Bridge. The project also includes resurfacing 5.3 miles of service roads adjacent to the parkway from 17th Street to Duval Street.
• If you’re wondering why the Duval County Legislative Delegation Office at City Hall is closed today and Thursday, it’s Jacksonville Day in Tallahassee and staffers Susan Stewart and Darla Wilson are over there to welcome visitors.
• Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez continued his Northeast Florida campaign for one of Florida’s Senate seats earlier this week. Martinez pressed flesh and raised money at the Epping Forest Yacht Club Monday.
• Should jurors be allowed to question witnesses in criminal trials? Several states are experimenting with that concept, and the debate is beginning locally. For more, see story on The Second Front.
• Lois Chepenik will step down March 31, as the executive director of Jacksonville Community Council, Inc. She’s leaving to become president of 21st Century Challenge, a new initiative that will address the elimination of sub–standard housing in Jacksonville.
• The mayor’s office is getting ready for the upcoming baseball season. City Hall has arranged to pick-up its season tickets for the 2004 Jacksonville Suns season. As part of the operating agreement with the Suns, the City gets access to two stadium suites, 50 box seats and parking passes for every home game. Chief of Staff Scott Teagle said one of the suites would be offered as part of any stadium naming rights deal. The other suite is usually offered to civic and community groups or to City employees.
• Correction: The Council’s Finance Committee meeting is April 5, not March 29, as we said in a City Note Tuesday.
• If Tuesday’s opening of the Whataburger on Philips Highway and Butler Boulevard is any indication, the local franchises may do pretty well. Police officers were called to direct lunchtime traffic because of the tie-ups caused by people trying to get into the restaurant. That’s good news for former Jags quarterback Mark Brunell, who is an investor in the local franchises.