• Several Super Bowl visitors have their eye on a piece of land along the St. Johns River. Bishop Kenny High School reportedly has been contacted by everyone from Playboy Magazine to Nike about temporarily leasing much of the school’s riverfront property to host parties and other events.
• Rush hour commuters who travel State Street should be prepared for delays. One lane is being closed daily as part of Better Jacksonville Plan roadwork improvements, creating traffic back-ups well past Liberty Street.
• The Jacksonville & the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau held a media familiarization trip just before the Feb. 27 Carnival launch, and it’s already paying big dividends. Judy Loebl, a columnist with 21st Century Newspapers, wrote a story about her experience at the Range of the Jaguar exhibit at the zoo. The March 14 column ran in six newspapers that reach more than 700,000 readers in the Detroit area and throughout Michigan. The visitors bureau knows additional stories are being planned because requests have come in for follow-up information and photos, including four requests from the United Kingdom.
• Mayor John Peyton will name his Park Task Force today, which will include park users, environmentalists and local business people. Peyton said the group will offer recommendations to take Jacksonville’s park systems “from the biggest to the best.”
• City Council member Suzanne Jenkins has introduced legislation to appropriate nearly $300,000 for two separate landscaping projects, one at the base of the Main Street Bridge on the Southbank and the other along Philips Highway.
• Before the 2006 NCAA basketball sub-regional comes to Jacksonville, the Veterans Memorial Arena will have to add game clocks that count down in tenths of seconds. The last minute of NCAA games require the clocks. The City noticed after they didn’t have the clocks for the UF/UCF game in December.
• The airport’s $25.5 million terminal expansion project should be “substantially” complete by October. Also, a new overpass at JIA should be complete by mid-April and the Florida Department of Transportation is planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony for late April.
• U.S. Rep. Ander Crenshaw told Mayor Peyton that it appeared some area manatee safety zones lacked scientific justification. Crenshaw questioned the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Steven Williams, during an appearance before a House subcommittee. Crenshaw said some zones “were . . . based on scientific data while other decisions were made without any such justifications.” Duval and Clay counties are suing the service because they say some of the zones are arbitrary and too restrictive.
• The Autism Association of Northeast Florida has teamed with the Landing to provide information and outreach to those associated with autism. Landing patrons will see banners, posters and table tents addressing National Autism Month throughout April.