• The General Counsel’s Office and City Council auditors are working to finalize special election dates for the vacant supervisor of elections job. A qualifying period of Dec. 6-13 is currently under consideration with a March 1 primary election. If necessary, a runoff would take place April 11.
• Signs at the entrance to the U.S. Courthouse at Jacksonville Friday: “All bulldogs who enter, beware.”
• Downtown Vision, Inc. is making a slight change in the way it adds stops on the First Wednesday Art Walk. Interested venues must contact DVI no later than 10 days after the previous art Art Walk. Otherwise calls tend to come in long after advertisements are printed.
• Ever since City Council member Suzanne Jenkins started complaining about advertisements on bus benches, things have changed — almost. Jenkins said several of the benches were not located near bus stops, putting them in violation of the City’s sign ordinance. Those benches have since been moved closer to the nearest stops. Jenkins said she would eventually like to see the benches advertisement-free.
• Jags QB Byron Leftwich is getting some more national press this week. He’s featured in an article in ESPN The Magazine.
• Speaking of national press, USA Today is running a series of articles on the City hosting the Super Bowl. There was one in Friday’s paper and stories will run periodically until the big game.
• There were few arrests over the weekend — only three at the game plus about 30 citations for scalping tickets — but there was one major theft. The Sports and Entertainment Division of the JEDC sponsors the Friday Hall of Fame luncheon and has a helmet from both teams to decorate the head table. “Someone took them,” said division director Mike Sullivan. “The person was seen walking out with the helmets. If they’ll just bring them back, no questions will be asked.” For more, see page 7.
• The City’s military liaison, Dan McCarthy drew the mayor’s office’s attention to a recent memo sent by New England Congress members to the Department of Defense, hailing a Maine shipyard as one of the country’s most efficient. That shipyard is similar in size and could be a competitor for survival with the local Naval Air Depot when the Pentagon begins cutting bases next year. McCarthy said the memo is a reminder that Jacksonville needs to present the “best case” for NADEP.